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THE DOCTRINE 


The Holy Spirit, 

OR, 


PHILOSOPHY OF THE DIVINE OPERATION 
IN THE REDEMPTION OF MAN. 


BY 


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REV. JAMES B. ^WALKER, D.D., 

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Author of '‘'‘The Living Questions of the Age,” '‘'‘The Philosophy of the Plan 
of Salvation Etc. 


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Sixth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 




CINCINNATI : 

JENNINGS AND DYE. 

NEW YORK : 

EATON AND MAINS. 

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CONGRESS, 
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TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT FORMS AND DISSERTATIONS 


CONCERNING THE GOSPEL, — 

RATHER THAN FAITH AND THE POWER AND SPIRIT OF THE TRUTH, IS PREVALKHT 

IN MANY CHURCHES OF OUR TIMES,— 

THESE PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 


The Author. 



- 







































INTRODUCTION. 


With this closing treatise, the series of hooks on 
the Divine wisdom, manifested in the processes of 
Creation and Redemption, is complete. This last 
book we think the most important of all ; and in 
connection with the preceding volumes, we hope 
enough has been done to establish the conviction in 
the minds of thoughtful readers, that the Work of 
Creation and Redemption is a unity — one chain of 
Creative Progress, begun when “ The Spirit of God 
brooded upon the face of the waters,” creating form- 
ative tendencies in material things, and begetting the 
first life -germs in the primal universal sea, — com- 
pleted when humanity was crowned by the birth of 
Christ, and the Divine image was begotten again in 
believing souls. 

It has been pleasant for the author to follow the 
processes of the Divine thought, as they have man- 


6 


INTRODUCTION. 


ifested themselves in Nature and Revelation ; and to 
seek in the progressive development of the whole 
sublime scheme, a true apprehension of the plan and 
purpose of the Creator. 

In this last book we endeavor to give an exposi- 
tion of the ultimate form and force of the Doctrine 
of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is received in 
some sense by all Christian sects ; yet by many, it 
is very apparent that the truth is held in form 
rather than in faith ; while none of us have had a 
sufficiently clear and influential conviction of the 
dependence of man on the vital operation of the 
Spirit of God. 

The Friends or Quakers have, perhaps, had the 
most scriptural apprehension of the doctrine in its 
cardinal principles. But even with them sectarian 
peculiarities have marred the manifestation of the 
Divine life. More good would have been done, if 
reform without needless peculiarities had character- 
ized the life and teaching of the Friends and other 
reformers of the martyr - period in England. If, in- 
stead of discarding music, and other social recreations 
and enjoyments, the early reformers had aimed to 
reduce them to happy and beneficent uses, then the 


INTRODUCTION. 


7 


doctrine which they made prominent, that the influ- 
ence of the Spirit is essential to all true worship, 
would have been more generally accepted by sincere 
Christians, and there would have been less of fal- 
lacy to restrain the Divine operation, as the central 
power in the kingdom of God. 

In this treatise we have endeavored to set forth 
the rational and scriptural exposition of inspired 
teaching concerning the Comforter, and to exhibit the 
place of the Divine Spirit in the Godhead, and in 
the work of Gospel progress. 

We do not assume to have presented the subject 
in such form that other minds may not add or sub- 
tract from the matters herein stated. We have done 
what God enabled us to do : and, grateful for the 
knowledge that our preceding books have been the 
means of good to many persons in many lands, we 
here close our labors on the whole subject, with 
the hope that this volume may add strength and 
completeness to the impression of the others, and 
that each reader may gain a clearer apprehension of 
the Divine character and the Divine operation. 






TO THE READER. 


The first portion of the following treatise may 
seem to some metaphysical rather than scriptural. 
This impression will pass away as the reader ad- 
vances. The views presented are designed to estab- 
lish the doctrine of the Father, Son and Spirit on 
a rational and scriptural basis. While they exhibit 
the subject in a different light, in some respects, 
from that in which many have been accustomed to 
view it, the scriptural integrity of the doctrine is 
maintained, — and maintained, we think, in such form 
that the reason does not reluctate against it, as it 
does against the phraseology in which the doctrine 
of the Trinity has sometimes been expressed in the 
formulas of the churches. 

The treatise presents, we are sure, a true exposi- 
tion of this doctrine ; and especially of the Work of 
the Spirit in the process of sanctification. We offer 


10 


TO THE TEA DEE. 


it as a contribution designed to promote intelligent 
faith, and unity of faith among the various denom- 
inations of believing people. We do not hope that 
the views here presented will be at once recognized 
by every reader as the true exposition of the doc- 
trine of the Spirit; but after mature discussion of 
the principles herein propounded, we have no doubt 
that these pages will aid in accomplishing the end 
for which they have been written — to glorify the 
true God, manifested in Christ , and revealed through 
Christ , by the Holy Spirit . 

In judging of the views upon which he is about 
to enter, the reader is solicitously desired to refer 
the adjudication of any doubt that may arise in his 
mind to the arbitrament of the Word of God, and 
to “ search the scriptures whether these things be 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

SECT. PAGE 

1. — The mystery of life - - - - 17 

2. — The doctrine of the Spirit, a peculiarity of the Bible - 18 

3. — The doctrine as developed in the Mosaic dispensation 20 

CHAPTER II. 

THE RELATIVE PLACE OF THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD IN THE 
ECONOMY OF THE DIVINE MIND. 

4. — All mind generically the same - - - - 23 

5. — Self consciousness of the mental constitution - 26 

6. — The Scripture view of the Logos, or Son of the Divine 

mind - - - - - - -30 

7. — Views of some of the best Christian thinkers in har- 

mony with this exposition - - - 32 

8. — Mind manifested only by its Logos, or out -birth 


35 


12 


CONTENTS. 


SECT. PAGE 

9. — God becomes imminently and effectively personal only 

in Christ - - - - - - 37 

10. — The Holy Spirit uses the personality of Christ in the 

work of Redemption - - - - 39 

CHAPTER HI. 

THE HOL*' SPIRIT IN THE PERSONALITY OF CHRIST. 

11. — The humanity of Christ was by the Holy Spirit - 41 

12. — The advent of the Spirit upon Christ at His Baptism, 

and its abiding unity with His humanity - 42 

13. — The Holy Spirit, abiding in Christ, leads Him into and 

through the temptation - - - - 44 

14. — The ministry of Christ, and the manifestation of God 

in Christ by the Holy Spirit - - - 45 

15. — The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ by the Holy 

Spirit - - - - - - - 47 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE ENDOWMENT AND SUPERVISION OF THE APOSTLES BY THE 

HOLY SPIRIT. 

16. — The disciples in the Old Testament state, until after 

the outpouring of the Spirit - - - 51 

17. — Peter’s precipitancy and error in acting before the time 53 

18. — Christ’s choice of the apostles 


55 


CONTENTS. 


13 


SECT. PAGE 

19. — Promise of Christ’s special presence by the Spirit, in 

answer to their supplication - - - 56 

20. — All essential truth spoken by Christ to be preserved by 

the suggestion of the Spirit - - - 58 

21. — The spiritual sense promised to the apostles - - 59 

22. — Further exposition of the promise that greater light and 

power would be given by the Spirit after Christ’s 
ascension - - - - - 62 

23. — The endowment of the apostles with special powers 

and prerogatives - - - - 67 

24. — The apostles affirm their consciousness of special en- 

dowment - - - - - - 70 

25. — The Providence of God working together with the 

Spirit in furthering the gospel by the instrumental- 
ity of the apostles - - - - - 7 2 

CHAPTER V. 

THE UNION OF THE WORD AND SPIRIT IN THE PROCESS OF 
SANCTIFICATION. 

26. — Does an increase of light imply an increase of spiritual 

power ? ------ 80 

27. — Of the Living Word as a rule of duty - - - 81 

28. — Necessity in reason for a perfect rule of human duty 83 

29. — A perfect rule of life the only principle of moral pro- 

gress - - - - - - -86 

30. — The truth being given in the life and precept of 

Christ, the second necessary thing is the work of 
the Spirit 


89 


14 


CONTENTS . 


SECT. PAGE 

31. — Rationale of the Spirit's operation in connection with 

the truth - - - - - 91 

32. — The preceding views illustrated by experience - - 94 

33. — The sum of preceding deductions - - - 95 

34. — The union of the Word and Spirit necessary in the 

process of conviction and sanctification - - 97 

35. — The preceding views accord with the relations of the 

Word and Spirit, as they exist in both the finite 
and the Infinite mind- - - - 99 

36. — The preceding views confirmed by the teaching of the 

Scriptures - - 100 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE WORK OF CHRIST BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT IN THE MINDS OF 

BELIEVERS. 


37. — The two fold office-work of the Spirit - - - 105 

38. — The experimental import of the statement that the 

Spirit shall not speak of Himself - 108 

39. — By exhibiting Christ the Spirit likewise exhibits the 

Father to the soul - Iio 

40. — The Spirit witnesses to the truth of Divine Revelation 112 

41. — The nature of the Spirit’s witness - - - 116 

42. — The influence of the Spirit upon the faculties of the 

mind separately considered - - - - 118 

43. — The duty of prayer annexed to the doctrine of the 

Spirit - 


124 


CONTENTS. 


15 


SECT. 

44. — The conditions upon which the influence of the Holy 

Spirit is granted - 

45. — Availing prayer is offered to God in the name of Christ 

46. — The sum of preceding sections - 


PAGE 


125 

131 

133 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WITH THE MINDS OF THE 
IMPENITENT. 

47. — Specific work of the Spirit in impenitent minds - 138 

48. — The promised convictions of the Spirit experienced by 

those who hear the gospel under spiritual impression 145 

49. — The awakening of the lost sinner, and his return to 

God, as illustrated by the Lord Jesus - - 149 

50. — The son’s life at home ----- 152 

CHAPTER VIII. 

SUPPLEMENTARY. 

51. — The promise of the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer 

is in harmony with the method of the gospel, that 
grace is bestowed upon one in order that benefit 
may be conferred upon others - - 157 

52. — The subjects of prayer should be specifically in view 

of the mind of the suppliant, when he can not per- 
sonally communicate with them - 162 


16 


CONTENTS. 


SECT. PAGE 

53. — The miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were not the 

product of the indwelling Spirit, in the ordinary 
sense ------- 165 

54. — “ The prayer of faith shall save the sick, * * * and if 

he have committed sins they shall be forgiven” - 170 

55. — Was the spiritual endowment imparted by laying on of 

hands to be transient or permanent in the churches? 174 

56. — Recondite laws of human nature connect themselves 

with this subject - - - - - 178 

189 


Appendix 


DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

§ 1. — The mystery of life. 

There is mystery connected with spiritual 
existence which the human mind cannot fathom. 
This is not only true of spiritual life, but it is 
true of all life in all its manifestations, and in 
all the kingdoms of nature. No finite mind can 
ever know where life begins, or how the life- 
germ assimilates to itself a material body. We 
may speculate about questions of this character 
— we may examine the lowest manifestation of 
life as it connects itself with the lowest organ- 
ized being — still the nature of life, and the man- 
ner of its union with materiality, no one may 


17 


18 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


know. To know where the inertia of matter 
ends and the motion of life begins is, and will 
be for ever, beyond the limit prescribed to the 
human intellect. 

Knowing, then, nothing of the nature of life, 
and judging of its attributes only by its mani- 
festations, we would approach with becoming rev- 
erence the inquiry concerning the attributes and 
manifestations of the Spirit of God. A conscious- 
ness of the limitation of the human understanding 
should incline the reason to humility, and to 
examine Revelation with gratitude, hoping that 
she may there find aid to discern and appreciate 
the doctrine of the Divine life. It is an import- 
ant fact, inviting to such examination, that when 
reason has been aided by revelation to perceive 
a truth, the accordance of that truth with her 
own most profound deductions is, to her, a clear 
testimony, not only of its validity, but likewise 
of the value of inspired instruction. 


§ 2. — The doctrine of the Spirit , a peculiarity of 
the Bible. 

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is one of the 
distinguishing peculiarities of the Hebrew and 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


19 


Christian Scriptures. The view given in the 
Bible of the creative energies of the Spirit of 
God, and of its place in the scheme of redemp- 
tion, is diverse from any other form of thought 
known to the human mind. No religious sys- 
tem, ancient or modern, gives a view in any 
wise similar to this doctrine, as revealed in the 
Scriptures. We do not say that a man, by his 
spirit, did such an act, or that a man’s spirit 
did it. Nor have pagan nations ever talked thus 
of their gods.* The peculiarity of the phrase- 
ology, and the consistency of its development 
throughout the whole scheme of revelation, will 
be, to thoughtful minds, a strong testimony for 
divine guidance in the doctrinal teachings of 
Moses and of Christ. 

In the opening of the eldest Scripture, the 
Holy Spirit is spoken of personally. (We do 
not say as a person ; but personally.') The pos- 
sessive form of expression in regard to the Father 
and the Spirit is used; and the life-giving attri- 
bute of the Spirit is introduced with the intro- 
duction of life. “ The Spirit of God brooded 

* The form of the idea, and the form of phrase, used by Plato 
and others in speaking of the “ Soul of the world, ” are quite 
diverse. 


20 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


upon the face of the waters,” begetting forma- 
tive tendencies in things, and initiating life-germs 
by which the first organic forms were produced 
in the primaeval sea.* Thenceforward, through 
all the dispensations, the idea of the life-giving 
Spirit of God is always recognized. 

§ 3. — The doctrine further developed in the Mosaic 
dispensation. 

Under the Patriarchal dispensation, when God 
was known only as Creator, the Spirit is spoken 
of only in its initial, life-giving energy. Under 
the dispensation of Moses, an advanced develop- 
ment of the doctrine may be recognized. The 
agency of the Spirit is here more especially 
connected with the moral life of men, and its 
attributes are revealed to the human conscious- 
ness, as beneficially related to man’s weakness 
and his sin. 

In the middle and later periods of the Old 
Testament Church, the faith and experience of 
devout minds, in regard to the Holy Spirit, ap- 
proximates more nearly to what is known and 
taught under the new and perfect dispensation. 
The Divine presence and the Divine Spirit are 

* See Appendix A — Moses and Geology. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


21 


spoken of interchangeably.* The holiness of the 
Spirit, its renewing and purifying influence, the 
impartations of joy, strength and courage derived 
from its presence in the soul, were clearly ap- 
preciated by the Psalmists. The identity of a 
believer’s experience under both dispensations is 
striking and instructive. When David had grossly 
sinned, so that pardon seemed almost impossible, 
he prays (Psa. li). “ Create in me a clean heart, 
O God ; and renew a right spirit within me. 
Cast me not away from thy presence ; and take 
not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me 
the joy of thy salvation ; and uphold me with 
thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors 
thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto 
thee.” The consciousness of every believer, pen- 
itent for some past offence, is almost a repro- 
duction of the state of mind deliniated in these 
passages. 

The prophets of the old dispensation were 
conscious of the influence of the Holy Spirit, and 
that all advance in the kingdom of God was 
gained by its operation. Isa. lxi, 1 — “The Spirit 
of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord 
hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto 

* Psalm cxxxix, 7. “ Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ; or 

whither shall I flee from thy presence?” 


22 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the 
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the cap- 
tives, and the opening of the prison to those in 
bonds.” In their apprehension, moral progress 
came not by human devices, nor by merely hu- 
man appliances; Zech. iv, 6 — “Not by might, 
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” 

Thus the germ-thoughts of the doctrine of the 
Spirit lie embedded in the Old Testament. A 
life-giving agent under the dispensation of Crea- 
tion, or the Patriarchal — a renewing and puri- 
fying power under the legal or Mosaic dispen- 
sation. But still, in both, whether under the 
dispensation of creation, or the more advanced 
dispensation of law, there is found the peculiar 
personal phraseology which distinguishes the doc- 
trine throughout the whole Scriptures. 

As light increases throughout the three dispen- 
sations, this germ -truth is further developed — 
from the blade (the sprout) into the ear, and, 
under the New Testament, to the full corn in 
the ear. Yet in all, and through all, there is 
the same Spirit of God, which vivified the first 
organic germs, energizing in all modifications of 
life, and finally renewing, purifying, and guiding 
those who by faith became obedient to Christ, 
as “ God manifest in the flesh.” 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


23 


CHAPTER II. 


THE RELATIVE PLACE OF THE SPIRIT AND THE 

WORD IN THE ECONOMY OF THE DIVINE MIND. 

Our views in regard to the work of the Divine 
Spirit will become more clear and discriminating 
if we apprehend, in the outset, as fully as we 
may, the first truths which underlie our subject, 
both in the economy of mind and in the re- 
vealments of the Scriptures. 

% 

§ 4 . — All mind generically the same. 

All mind, finite or infinite, must be the same 
in its elementary characteristics, so far as known 
to us.* Reason, conscience, will, in all beings, 
are homogeneous — the same in their nature, 
whether finite and fallible, or infinite and per- 

* We do not discuss the question whether God may not have 
attributes which have no finite analogues in the human soul. 
The inquiry would be fruitless, and our argument does not 
require it. 


24 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


feet. Reason, so far as she sees, accorus with 
the nature of things physical and moral. Her 
axioms are universal. We know that two and 
two must be four with God, as they are with 
men, because the physical universe is constructed 
upon the principle of mathematical proportion. 
Right and wrong enter into moral relations as 
mathematical proportion enters into physical re- 
lations. There can be no response in the human 
soul to the moral administration of God, unless 
the primary moral convictions of man coincide 
with conscience or moral judgment in the Divine 
mind. If moral truth be not the same, when dis- 
covered, to all moral beings, then the moral uni- 
verse is founded upon the principle of discord. 
Benevolence, or conformity to the law of love, 
must be the same in its nature in God and in 
man, else man in becoming benevolent, by faith 
in Christ, would not come into conformity with 
the character of God. Knowledge of the Divine 
mind, therefore, so far as the Infinite mind can be 
comprehended by the finite, must be obtained through 
the analogy existing between the human and the 
Divine minds, and the Divine love must be appre- 
hended through the human susceptibility. Man 
can not obey a law unless he understands it. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


25 


He can not know what love is unless he feels 
it. He can have no sense of the moral duty 
due to God, unless the obligation of right and 
wrong is appreciated* alike by the Divine and 
the human mind. 

To make statements concern ng the Divine 

mind or the Divine character that can not be 
appropriated in consciousness, nor appreciated by 
the reason, is to talk in words that can have 
no more import to the hearer than a description 
of colors to a man born blind. If it be not 

irreverent, therefore, we may say, that if God 
would create a being to know and appreciate 
His character, it would, from the nature of things, 
be necessary that that being should be created 
with rational and moral powers, the same in kind 
as those which constitute the Divine perfections. 
Lower, it may be, than the angels — limited in 
some directions, immature in others, and imper- 
fect in all ; yet still a creature created in the 

* Just as the movements of the physical universe furnish an 

exhibition of phenomena to which the human mind may apply 
its perception of proportion, and thus progressively deduce the 
laws of nature ; so the work of God in nature and revelation 
being given, the human mind can deduce from the first the natural 
attributes, and from the second, the moral character, of God. 


26 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


moral image of God alone can know and glorify 
Him.* 

We may assume the deduction, then, as a pre- 
mise, that an insight into the capacities and fac- 
ulties of the human mind will teach us some- 
thing of the economy of the Godhead. And if 
the views thus educed are sanctioned by a clear 
exposition of the Scriptures, we shall be sure 
that we have gained knowledge that will aid us 
to become acquainted with God, and to be at 
peace with Him. 

§ 5. — Self-consciousness of the mental constitution. 

That mind has, in some sense, a tri-par tite con 
stitution, is, to self-knowing men, beyond ques- 
tion.! Few are able to introvert the eye, and 
scan with clear-seeing discrimination what is re- 


* See Appendix B — Anthropology. 

f Tri - partite, — if we adopt the prevalent philosophy of an 
“ unknowable” substance or essence in which personality and 
attribute inhere. If we suppose the “ I ” to be personality or 
substance, the view given in the text is somewhat modified, but 
the phraseology is still valid. Conscience and love are states of 
the “ I.” Thought is a generation or outbirth of the “ I.” 
Will is the act of the “ I.” The character of thought and will 
accords with the state of the Ego. 


the hol y spirit. 


27 


vealed in their own consciousness; and mental 
science has been so perplexed by the treatises 
of scholars to whom God has given no original 
insight, that knowledge of mind has been ob- 
scured and hindered, rather than cleared and fur- 
thered, by a multitude of well-meaning writers. 
Holding all these in abeyance, we will look at 
this subject in common phraseology and in scrip- 
tural definitions : assuming as sufficient for our 
exposition the common view that there is a sub- 
stratum or substance of mind known to us only 
by its manifestations. We shall gain the assent 
of the thoughtful when we say, that in this un- 
knowable substance of mind there are two things 
which stand out clearly in the field of conscious- 
ness — diverse in one sense and indivisible in an- 
other, yet both inhering in the Father-substance 
of the soul. These two hypostates, personalities, 
or manifestations (call them what you will) are 
spirit and thought. There is something in the 
mind apart from thought which is conscious of 
producing thought ; which sees and judges of the 
character and fitness of the thought produced : 
which modifies, arranges, and uses thought (or 
the word) to effect its purposes. It is not any 
of the laws of mind ; it is more than a faculty 


28 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


of mind. It is something that perceives thought, 
feeling, and faculty, in consciousness, as features 
and actions are seen in a glass. If we may not 
call it the substance of mind, we must regard 
it as a knowing entity, or personality, a thought- 
producing and thought-using agent. Different in 
one sense from the conceived logos, or word, as 
the agent is from the object — standing in rela- 
tion to thought as the observer to the observed 
— sometimes as the agent to the instrument. 

Now this entity, or of the mind, is design 

nated distinctly by the word “ spirit ” in the Scrip- 
tures ; and the testimony of consciousness, concern- 
ing the relations of spirit and word in the human 
mind, is set forth as true both of the human and 
the Divine mind. The place of the knowing spirit 
and the known word is thus stated by the apostle 
(1 Cor. ii, 10), “ The spirit searcheth all things, 
yea, the deep things of God. For what man 
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of 
man which is in him? even so the things of 
God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” 

But while consciousness and the Scriptures give 
us this ultimate analysis, all know that the in- 
spired writers do not often speak analytically in 
regard to the place of the Spirit and Word in 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


29 


the Divine mind. They speak of the Father, 
Son, and Spirit interchangeably, giving Divine at- 
tributes to each of them : and in the baptismal 
formula, the one name contains the three per- 
sonalities, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It 
should be observed, also, that the Scriptures not 
only speak of the Word and Spirit interchange- 
ably, but the Spirit in its efficient qualities is 
spoken of sometimes as the Spirit of the Father, 
and at other times as the Spirit of the Son.* 

Accepting then the testimony of consciousness 
and the teaching of the Scriptures, as to the 
personality of the Spirit and the Word, and their 
place in the economy of mind ; and accepting the 
same authority for deriving a knowledge of the 
Infinite by analogies drawn from the human 
mind, we are prepared to inquire further con- 
cerning the relations of the Spirit and the Word 
to each other and their related place and power 
in the economy of redemption 

* Isa. lxi, i, — “ The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me ; he hath 
anointed me to preach glad tidings unto the meek,” etc, i Pet. 
^n, — “The prophets searched what, or what manner of time, 
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,” etc. Gal. 
iv, 6, — “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our 
hearts, ” etc. 


30 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


§ 6 . — The Scripture view of the Logos, or Son of 
the Divine mind. 

The Evangelist John gives the lineage of the 
Son of God, as Matthew does that of the Son 
of Man. In Scripture illustration, the Logos, or 
conceived Word, is born of the Divine mind, as 
light is born of the sun. Heb. i, 2, 3, — “ God 
hath spoken to us in these last days by his Son, 
who is the out-shining of his Father’s glory, and 
the real expression of his nature or person.” 
As we know of the existence and nature of the 
sun only through the medium of its light, so we 
can know the moral character of God only by 
the Mediator, Christ Jesus. This analogy is ex- 
pressly warranted in 2 Cor. iv, 6, — “ God, who 
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, 
hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light 
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
of Jesus Christ.”* The Evangelist John gives 
the fact divested of its figurative form. “ In 
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 


* Those who have read the leading theological writers of the 
past and present centuries, may have noticed that, for the most 
part, they are so constrained by their theological systems, that 
they fear to use the inspired analogies common to the apostles 
and the earliest fathers, on this subject. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


31 


with God, and the Word was God. The same 
was in the beginning with God. All things were 
made by him ; and without him was not any 
thing made that was made. In him was life ; 
and the life was the light of men.” “ The Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” 

And it is only by this manifestation in the 
person of His Son that God is known to men. 
“ No man hath seen God at any time ; the only 
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the 
Father, he hath declared him.” And in Matt, 
xi, 27, “All things are delivered unto me of my 
Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the 
Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, 
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son 
will reveal him.” That is, the Father does not 
reveal the Son, but the Son reveals the Father ; 
and no man knows the Father but by revelation 
through the Son. 

The conceived Word is as old as the Divine 
mind — “He was in the beginning with God.” 
(The eternally begotten Son of orthodox theol- 
ogy.) But the revealed or manifested Word, in 
His relations to man, is no older than the time 
when the Divine mind was manifested by its 
Logos in creation ; subsequently, in the guidance 


32 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


and culture of the Jewish church,* and finally 
and perfectly by the incarnation in “ the Medi- 
ator, the man Christ Jesus.” 

§ 7. — Views of some of the best Christian thinkers 
in harmony with this exposition. 

It is difficult to separate selfishness from sys- 
tem and forms. The man who devises the sys- 
tem, and the man who adopts it as his system, 
have both a personal feeling and identification 
with it ; hence they will press their peculiarities 
until the truth is restrained and constrained by 
their dogmatic formularies. It often, therefore, 
comes to pass that the setting forth of scriptural 
truth concerning the genesis of the Son of God, 
in the phrase and manner of the scriptures them- 
selves, is feared, by well-meaning persons as an 
impeachment of the sectarian forms in which their 
theology is cast. To relieve this habitude of 
mind, in regard to the present topic, we annote 
the thoughts of some of the most eminent and 
pious theologians, ancient and modern. 

* i Cor, x, 4, — “They drank of that spiritual Rock that 
went with them: and that Rock was Christ.” x, 9, — “ Nei- 
ter let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and 
were destroyed of serpents.” 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


83 


Matthew Henry — the best -read in the Bible 
of all the commentators — has given the inspired 
conception in his note on the first passage in 
the Gospel by John. He says : 

“ The Evangelist in the close of his discourse 
(v, 18) plainly tells us why he calls Christ the 
Word of God: — because He is the only begot- 
ten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, 
and has declared Him. 

“Word is two -fold; word conceived, and word 
uttered. 

“ (1.) There is the word conceived, that is, 
thought , which is the only immediate product of 
the soul — all the operations of which are per- 
formed by thought, and it is one with the soul. 
Thus the second person in the Trinity is fitly 
called the Word, for He is the first begotten of 
the Father, that eternal Wisdom which Jehovah 
possessed, as the soul doth its thought , ‘ in the 
beginning of his way ’ (Prov. viii, 22). There 
is nothing we are more sure of than that we 
think, yet there is nothing we are more in the 
dark about than how we think. Who can de- 
clare the generation of thought in the soul ? 
Surely then the generations and births of the 
Eternal mind may well be allowed to be great 
3 


34 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


mysteries of godliness, which we can not fathom, 
while yet we may adore the depth. 

“ (2.) There is word uttered, and that is 
speech. Thus Christ is the Word, for by Him, 
‘ God hath spoken in these last times unto us ’ 
(Heb. i, 2), and has directed us to hear Him. 
(Matt, xvii, 5.) He has made known God's 
mind unto us, as a man’s word or speech makes 
known his thought, as far as he pleases, and no 
farther.” 

The devout Baxter finds in both the human 
and the Divine mind a trinity of “ essentiali- 
ties,” which he calls life -action, understanding, 
and will — (Potentia-actus, Intellectus, Voluntas). 
He does not affirm that these principles are all 
there is of the Trinity, or the Divine person- 
ality ; yet they are in his opinion the ground 
of a three -fold, eternal self-action in the God- 
head, and likewise the ground of the Divine 
manifestation in three persons. See Meth. vi, c. 
2, and Prac. Works 19, 21. 

Some passages from the Fathers will indicate 
the mode of expression not uncommon in the 
earlier ages of the Christian Church. 

Clement of Alexandria writes, in his exhorta- 
tion to the Greeks : “ The Divine Logos, the 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


85 


Christ, was the cause of our being, and well- 
being also, for He was in God. And now this 
Logos Himself appears to men, the only being 
that ever partook of both natures, as well that of 
God as of man, to be the cause of all good to us.” 

Tertullian says : 44 The Greeks denominate that 
Logos which we translate Word , and thus our 
people, for brevity’s sake, say — 4 In the begin- 
ning the W ord was with God ; ’ though it would 
be more proper to say — Reason, since God was 
not speaking from the beginning, although ra- 
tional. * * * Considering, therefore, and dis- 

posing by His reason, He effected His will by 
His word, which thou mayest easily understand 
by ivhat passes in thyself .” Tur. ad Prax. c. v. 

Justin the Martyr — the first of the apologists, 
who stood in immediate connection with the 
apostles, says : 44 It is not allowable to think 
otherwise of the Spirit and Power which is in 
God than that it is the Logos , which also is the 
first-born of God.” — Ap . ii. 

§ 8. — Mind manifested only by its Logos , or 
out-birth. 

We can know the character of a spirit only 
by its words and acts — its logos revealed in 


36 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


words and action. Man may embody his word 
impersonally, in written language, and send it to 
all nations who understand the written charac- 
ter. Why then might not the Word of God be 
made flesh? Why might not God send His Son 

— the Word, or out -birth of the Divine mind 

— to become personal in a human nature, so 

that the true God might be revealed through 
the flesh to those in the flesh ? “ Thus God in 

these last days has spoken to us by his Son.” 

From the nature of the case such a manifes- 
tation was necessary, or man could never know 
God.* The Scriptures affirm the form of this 
manifestation in language that is easily under- 
stood. u God was in Christ, reconciling the 
world to himself.” Jesus produces reconciliation 
by revealing the Divine character in ways 
adapted to our nature and our wants. He said, 
“ I am the way , the truth , and the life ; no man 
can come unto the Father but by me.” He is 
the Mediator — the Way . God and man meet 
together in His person. God comes in on the 
side of His divinity, and man comes in and 
meets God through the side of His humanity. 
He is the truth — the Divine character and will 

* See “ God revealed,” etc., B. ii, c, 5. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT, 


37 


are manifested through Him. “ No man know- 
eth the Father but the Son, and he to whom- 
soever the Son will reveal him.” He is the Life 
— the Spirit of Life was in Him ; and He was 
a life-giving Spirit. 

We shall see more distinctly as we go on that 
it is the character , the nature of God, thus re- 
vealed in Christ, which becomes the element of 
saving power in the soul . The teaching, the 
life, and the death of Christ, is a true, and full, 
and final revelation of the Divine thought, and 
will, and heart, in regard to man ; and by faith, 
which gives this manifestation effect upon the 
soul, “ Christ Jesus, of God, is made unto us 
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
redemption.” * 

§ 9. — G-od becomes imminently and effectively per- 
sonal only in Christ. 

Man is so constituted as a moral being, that 
obedience and gratitude can be exercised only 
toward a personal being — a being who consciously 
and voluntarily does us good. The idea of theol- 
ogizing skeptics, that man can be grateful to the 


* Cor. i, 30. 


38 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


laws of nature, or to the bread that satisfies 
his hunger, is preposterous. Man can feel no 
sense of responsibility or gratitude to something 
that is “neither personal nor impersonal”* in 
any comprehensible sense. Obligation, obedience, 
gratitute, are possible only when founded upon 
the character and voluntary acts of a personal 
being. 

Now it is by the work of Christ that God 
becomes imminently personal to the soul. The 
human mind can have an idea of the personality 
of an invisible spirit only in connection with its 
history, its lif e-action, f My life-work gives char- 
acter to my personality, in the minds of others, 
after I leave the world. All that other spirits 
can know or judge of me as a separate person 
they must get from the will, intellect, and love 
manifested in my life. So we can know God as 
a personal being only by His manifestation in 
the angelic or human nature — a manifestation of 
heart and will — feeling and action — which the 
soul may accept by faith as a revelation of the 
divine nature. The idea of a God every where 

* See Parkers “Discourses of Religion.” 

f Hence the Anthropomorphism of all ages and religions, frorn 
the beginning to the end of the world. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


39 


present at the same time, over and in nature, 
may be true, but it is impersonal, and hence it 
is abstract and without life to the human soul. 
In the presence of such an idea of God, man 
can neither exercise obedience, gratitude, or wor- 
ship. 

§ 10. — The Holy Spirit uses the personality of 
Christ in the work of Redemption , 

Hence we are taught that the Holy Spirit^ 
when He comes to the soul, does not speak of 
Himself — of His own personality — but He takes 
of the things that belong to Christ, and shows 
them to the believer.* When the soul is con- 
scious of the Divine presence, it does not recog- 
nize two personalities ; because the Spirit comes 
clothed in the personality of Jesus, and its life 
is bestowed through the manifestations which 
God makes of Himself in His Son. 

The Holy Spirit gives to the soul by influx 
through the susceptibility, a newer and higher 
consciousness of the Divine nature, which is 
love. But He is not a revealer of new truths, 
nor an exhibitor of His own personality. 


When 


* John, xvi, 15. 


40 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


He visits the pious mind, He does not lead that 
mind to think of Himself, but of Jesus. He 
takes of the manifestations of the Divine char- 
acter, made by Christ, and gives them efficacy, 
by power and love, in the human soul. He 
comes to us through the Son, baptized in his 
humanities, as a ray of light takes the hue of 
the medium through which it passes; and thus 
He becomes to the soul the Spirit of both the 
divine and the human, as it was in Christ Jesus. 
The Son of God manifests the Divine mind ; the 
Spirit of God uses that manifestation to sanctify 
and save us. Hence Christ and the Spirit are 
one to the soul, and one in the Church to the 
end of the dispensation; as He said, “Lo, I am 
with you alway, even to the end of the world.”* 

* The ideas of some of the elder divines, as well as the 
modems, are strangely confused in regard to the work of the 
Spirit, and the relation of the Word and the Spirit in the work 
of redemption. For evidence of this, see text and notes in 
Archdeacon Hare’s “Mission of the Comforter,” 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


41 


CHAPTER III. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PERSONALITY OF CHRIST. 

That there was a special connection between 
the Holy Spirit and the human nature of Christ 
is plainly and frequently taught in the New 
Testament. The inspired teaching on this subject 
can not be easily misunderstood. The creeds of 
sects have in some instances blinded its expres- 
sion, but still the true import of Scripture is 
generally accepted in the churches. In all the 
parts, and in all the accomplishments of Christ’s 
mission, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the 
developing power. When the plain Bible state- 
ment is received as authority, the several pas- 
ages on this subject scarcely need an exposition. 
We shall therefore give passages, with only such 
remarks as seem necessary for their historical 
connection. 

§ 11. — The humanity of Christ was by the Holy 
Spirit. 

In His humanity, Christ was the “ second 


42 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


Adam ; ” the second human nature created im 
mediately by the Divine power.* The humanity 
of Christ, being originated by the life - giving 
energy of the Holy Ghost, was hence without 
the taint of transmitted debility or depravity. 
Therefore it was declared that the Holy Being 
born of the Virgin should be called the Son of 
God. In this pure humanity “ dwelled the full- 
ness of the Godhead bodily,” as the Shekinah 
dwelled in the tabernacle in the wilderness. 
John i, 14, — “The Word was made flesh, and 
tabernacled among us.” John ii, 19 — 21, — 
“ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will 
raise it up.” “ He spake of the temple of his 
body.” Thus the Son of God by eternal gener- 
ation became united with the Son of Man, or 
the Son of God by earthly generation, and men 
“ beheld his glory ; the glory of the only begot- 
ten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

§ 12. — The advent of the Spirit upon Christ at 

His baptism, and its abiding unity with His 

humanity. 

“ Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, 
and in favor both with God and man ; ” and 

* See Appendix C — The Scientific Formula of the 
Birth of Christ. 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


43 


“ when he began to be about thirty years of 
age he came from Galilee to Jordan to be bap- 
tized of John ; and being baptized, “ the heav- 
ens were opened , and the holy ghost descended 
UPON HIM IN BODILY SHAPE, AS A DOVE.” The 
Holy Spirit being now personally in Christ, a 
voice from heaven proclaimed, “This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 

This descent of the Spirit of God upon Christ, 
the second Adam, and its abiding in Him , was 
the appointed witness to John of the Messiah- 
ship of the Redeemer. Before this manifestation 
the Baptizer had known Christ as a holy teacher, 
but not as the Messiah, till God in his pres- 
ence “ anointed him with the Holy Ghost and 
with power.”* “ He that sent me to baptize 
with water,” said John, “ the same said unto 
me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Holy Spirit 
descending , and REMAINING, the same is he 
which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I 
saw and bare witness that this is the Son of 
God.”’ 

* Acts x, 38. f John i, 33, 34. 

[Words and quotations that are capital or emphatic in the 
chain of exposition, are often so marked in the text. The reader 
is desired to mark quoted and emphasized.] 


44 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


§ 18. — The Holy Spirit abiding in Christ, leads 
Him into and through the temptation. 

After the baptism Luke makes record that 
Jesus, “ being full of the Holy Grhost,” returned 
from Jordan, and “ was led by the Spirit into the 
wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” * The 
Scriptures teach (James i, 18), that God, increate 
and separate from sense, “ can not be tempted ; ” 
wherefore, in the order of reason and mercy, 
“ it behooved Christ in all things to be made 
like unto his brethren, that he might be a mer- 
ciful and faithful High Priest in things pertain- 
ing to God, to make reconciliation for the sins 
of the people. For in that he himself hath suf- 
fered being tempted, he is able to succor them 
that are tempted.”* Henee “a body was pre- 
pared ” for the Redeemer, that He might be 
touched through its sympathies with a feeling of 
our infirmities. By the incarnation, God came 
into sensitive sympathy with humanity, and in- 
vites humanity to come into sympathy with 
divinity. Thus the Holy Spirit led Christ through 
a human experience, “he being tempted in all 
respects as we are, yet without sin.” 


* Heb. ii, 17, 18. 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


45 


§ 14. — The ministry of Christ, and the manifesta- 
tion of G-od in Christ, by the Holy Spirit . 

The apostle (1 Peter i, 11) says of the prophets 
that they “searched what, and what manner of 
time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them 
did signify, when it testified beforehand the suf- 
ferings of Christ, and the glory that should fol- 
low.” And this Spirit of Christ which was in 
them (not “ bodily ” and “ without measure,” but 
inspiringly) spake of the whole ministry of Christ 
as being developed by the Holy Ghost. In pro- 
phetic transport, Isaiah exclaims (lxi, 1), “ The 
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the 
Lord hath anointed me to preach glad tidings 
unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the 
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the cap- 
tives, and the opening of the prison to them 
that are bound.” 

In various forms of language the inspired 
writers of the New Testament, also, instruct us 
that Christ’s ministry — His miracles — His sacri- 
fice — His resurrection, and the subsequent en- 
dowment of the apostles, were by the Divine 
Spirit. 

After God had “ anointed him with the Holy 


46 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


G-host and with power ” at His baptism, He 
returned from His temptation in the wilderness 
(into which He had been led by the Spirit) 
“m the power of the Spirit into Galilee”* To 
the sense of men — His disciples, as well as 
others — He was personally present as a human 
being, but His claims to the Messiahship, as the 
Son of God, He predicated upon the statement 
(John xiv, 10) — ■“ The Father that dwelleth in 
me,” He “speaketh the words,” and “doeth the 
works.” 

Hence He says (Matt, xii, 28), — “If I cast 
out devils by the Spirit of God, then the king- 
dom of God is come unto you.” So, likewise, 
He taught that sin against the Son of Man, con- 
ceived of by the presence of His human person 
(in which even His disciples did not clearly dis- 
cern the indwelling divinity, (John xiv, 9), was 
pardonable ; but those who with malignant mind 
should sin against the Holy Ghost, manifested 
by greater light yet to be given, as well as by 
miracles of mercy and power, of which they were 
witnesses, “ had no forgiveness, neither in this 
world, nor in that which is to come.” f 


* Luke iv, 14. 


f Matt xii, 22 - 23. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


47 


§ 15 . — The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ by 
the Holy Spirit . 

The power and the presence of the Holy Spirit 
is recognized in the chief act of reconciliation — 
the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. Hence it 
is said (Heb. ix y 14), that “ the blood of Christ, 
who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself 
without spot unto God, shall purge your con- 
sciences from dead works to serve the living 
God.” 

This purifying effect of Christ’s sacrifice is the 
conscious secret of a true faith, which none of 
the formal worshipers of this day understand. 
The love of Christ, by the life of the Spirit, is 
imparted to those who believe in His sufferings 
for their good. This quickens their conscience, 
purifies their heart, and gives love-motive to the 
will, so that formal worship and selfish works 
cease : their “ conscience is purified from dead 
works,” and thenceforth their works are living 
works, that is, works produced by love to God 
and men. 

After His sacrifice, Christ was “ declared to be 
the Son of God with power, according to the 
Spirit of holiness , by his resurrection from the 


48 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


dead.”* “Whom the Jews slew, God by his 
Spirit raised up. ,: And the Apostle Peter, in 
pregnant sentences, such as he always wrote, 
teaches us (1 Pet. iii, 18) that Christ has once 
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
He might bring us to God, being put to death 
in the flesh, but quickened , or brought to life, by 
the Spirit . 

Thus “ the God of peace brought again our 
Lord Jesus Christ from the dead,”f and after 
His resurrection, being assembled together with 
His disciples, He breathed on them, and said, 
“ Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” And “ for about 
the space of forty days, he continued, before his 
ascension, until he, by the Holy Ghost , had given 
commandments unto the apostles whom he had 
chosen.” J 

Thus, in all the vicissitudes of the Redeemer’s 
life, in His death, and in His resurrection, THE 
SCRIPTURES REQUIRE US TO BELIEVE 
that His mission and ministy ivas executed by the 
power of the Holy Ghost. In this sense, “ God 
was in Christ reconciling the world unto him- 
self.” “ In him was Life, and that Life was 
the light of men.” “ The first Adam was made 

* Roro. i, 4. f Heb. xiii, 20. % Acts i, 2. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT \ 


49 


a living soul , the second a life-giving Spirit,” — * 
the one transmitting animal life — the other spirit- 
ual, eternal life. And the work of Christ, which 
in the days of His flesh was thus actuated by 
the Holy Ghost, is stiL administered, and will 
be to the end of the world, by the same Spirit, 
and for the accomplishment of the same ends. 
Since the resurrection, as we shall see, even more 
efficiently than before, “ Christ of God is made 
unto men wisdom, and righteousness, and sanc- 
tification, and redemption.” 


50 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


CHAPTER IV. 

THE ENDOWNENT AND SUPERVISION OF THE 
APOSTLES BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.* 

Christ having accomplished His personal work 
in the world, the next step in the process was 
to endow with the Spirit, and send forth those 
apostles whom He had chosen, disciplined, and 
furnished with the truth of the new dispensation. 
They were to go forth “as sheep among wolves;” 
but “ endued with a spirit and wisdom which 
their enemies could neither gainsay nor resist.” 
Thus endowed, and trusting in him who had 
promised to be with them, they went forth joy- 
fully to a life of labor and suffering — but to a 
labor sustained by the hope, which by faith had 
become a reality, that they would establish the 
kingdom of God upon earth, and initiate an order 
and worship against which the powers of evil 
could never prevail. 

* Vide — Preliminary Essay to McKnight on the Epistles. 


THE HOL Y SPIRI T. 


51 


§ 16. — The disciples in the Old Testament state, 
until after the outpouring of the Spirit . 

With some little advance in spiritual insight, 
the disciples were in the Old Testament state 
until after Christ’s resurrection. Jesus did not 
design to remove, even in their case, the forms 
of Old Testament worship, nor the sense of Old 
Testament obligation, until after His ascension. 
All the sanctions of duty were drawn from the 
Old Testament, until the New was inaugurated. 
The disciples asked nothing in the name of Christ 
before His sacrifice in the sense that they did 
afterwards. They had a purified heart, and an 
obedient will ; * but they had not the spiritual 
consciousness of the new dispensation until after 
the outpouring of the promised Spirit. As they 
went to Emmaus, their words to the risen Re- 
deemer not only indicated that they had not 
apprehended the import and the necessity of His 
death (a truth which He had plainly indicated 
to them), but they disclosed very distinctly the 
secular views which they entertained of His 

* John xv, 3. — “Now ye are pure through the word which I 
have spoken unto you,” etc. 


52 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


mission, even after the fact of His crucifixion. 
Luke xxii, 14-21 — “We had trusted,” said they, 
“that it had been he who should have redeemed 
Israel.” 

The prophets did not fully understand the 
spiritual nature of Christ’s sacrifice nor the spir- 
itual character of that glory which was to fol- 
low,* and the disciples appear to have remained 
with like imperfect conceptions of the character 
and mission of the Redeemer, until they were 
“endued with power from on high.” They said, 
when they assembled with Him after the resur- 
rection, and before the outpouring of the Holy 
Spirit, “ Lord, wilt thou, at this time, restore 
the kingdom to Israel?” f The answer of Jesus 
(as though an exposition at that time would be 
of but little value to them) gave no solution of 
their inquiry, but referred them to the outpour- 
ing of the Spirit, for which they were to wait 
at Jerusalem. “Ye shall receive,” said He, “the 
power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you : $ 
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Je- 

* i Peter i, 10-12. f Acts, 1, 6. 

% The “ power of the Holy Ghost came upon the disciples.” 
Upon Jesus the Holy Spirit descended and remained in a per- 
sonal form. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


53 


rusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost parts of the earth. And when he 
iad spoken these words, while they beheld, he 
was taken up ; and a cloud received him out 
of their sight.” * They then returned to Jeru- 
salem to wait, as Christ had commanded them, 
for “the promise of the Father,” which, said 
He, “ye have heard of me. For John truly 
baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Grhost not many days hence.” 

§ 17. — Peter's precipitancy and error in acting 
before the time. 

Peter was by nature impetuous. He had the 
temperament of Luther — a temperament which 
fits a man for great achievements when chastened 
by great grace. His precipitancy before his “con- 
version,” or spiritual illumination, often led him 
into mistakes, and sometimes into sin. An error 
of this kind, as we suppose, occurred while the 
disciples “ waited ” at Jerusalem for the advent 
of the “ promised Spirit.” The plain intimation 
in the instruction of Christ is, that nothing was 
to be done until they should be “baptized with 

* Acts i, 8, 9, and 4, 5. 


54 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


the Holy Ghost and with power.” But the san - 
guine impulses of Peter prompted him, and lie 
prompted the other disciples, to elect a twelfth 
apostle before the time. They were instructed 
to await the influence and guidance of the Spirit 
before they began their work; yet, under the 
motion of Peter, they elected Matthias to the 
apostleship. This election without the Spirit did 
not receive the Divine sanction. Matthias was 
no doubt a faithful disciple, but Christ, person- 
ally, chose His own apostles ; and subsequently 
to this election He chose and endowed Paul, as 
the twelfth member of the sacred college. He 
was called miraculously by the voice of Jesus 
Himself, and received a special commission to 
“bear the name of Christ before the Gentiles and 
kings and the children of Israel;” and the badge 
of suffering was annexed as in the case of the 
other apostles. Acts ix, 16 — “I will show him 
how great things he shall suffer for my sake.”* 
Before noticing the work of the apostles, and 
their spiritual consciousness, we will now return 
a moment, and notice their call and appointment, 
and the promises of enlightenment and guidance 
given them in the last instructions of the Re- 

* See Appendix D — Paul, not Matthias, the twelfth Apostle. 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


55 


deemer. We shall see the whole subject more 
clearly by noticing the import of specific passages. 
Some repetition will occur by this method, but 
it will serve to bring out the application of the 
same thought in different relations. 


§ 18. — Christ's choice of the apostles . 

John xv, 16, — “ Ye have not chosen me, but 
I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye 
should go and bring forth fruit, and that your 
fruit should remain : that whatsoever ye shall ask 
the Father in my name, he may give it you.” 

The choice of the apostles and their appoint- 
ment to their vocation are here stated. Jesus 
had communicated to them the truth, which He 
tells them in the context He had “received of 
the Father.” Ver. 15, — “All things that I have 
heard of my Father I have made known unto 
you.” Hence from the Father, through the Son, 
by the Spirit, they were endowed for their holy 
office. As in ver. 26, 27, — “When the Comforter 
is come, whom I shall send unto you from the 
Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceed- 
ed from the Father, he shall testify of me : and 
ye shall bear witness because ye have been with 


56 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


me from the beginning.” In their subsequent 
work the apostles understood and affirmed their 
commission as witnesses conjointly with the Holy 
Spirit. They said (Acts v, 32), we are witnesses, 
and so is also the Holy Ghost, which God hath 
given to them that obey Him. 

Thus by the instruction of Christ and the en- 
dowment of the Spirit they were qualified for 
their mission. They were to be the seed-men of 
the dispensation, the fruit of whose lives was to 
be permanent spiritual instruction in the churches, 
and for all mankind. In accordance with this 
appointment, their fruit remains in the inspired 
writings, and in church organizations ; and this 
truth will ever continue the element of enlight- 
enment and of sanctification to us and to all 
future generations of men. 

§ 19. — Promise of Christ's special presence by 
the Spirit, in answer to their supplication. 

In conjunction with the appointment of the 
apostles, and with the promise that their labors 
should remain as an abiding blessing to mankind, 
there is assurance given them that their prayers 
should be answered. They would need con- 


THE HOL V SPIRIT . 


57 


strain t, aid, and guidance in their work, and this 
was granted according to the same principle that 
governs other cases, that is, on condition of faith 
and obedience. But, as their work was to be 
permanent and special, so corresponding plenary 
communications were furnished. The promised 
answer to their prayer had, no doubt, reference, 
in an especial sense, to the gift of the Holy 
Spirit, that should live internally in their con- 
sciousness, and work externally in the providences 
that surrounded them. John xiv, 14-18, — “If 
ye ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If 
ye love me, keep my commandments. And I 
will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
another Comforter, that may abide with you for- 
ever ; even the Spirit of Truth ; whom the world 
can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither 
knoweth him :* but ye know him ; for he dwell- 
eth with you, and shall be in you.” And then, 

* TV s world can have no spiritual consciousness of Christ as a 
Divine Saviour. They can know Him historically, as to His 
humanity ; but it is the Spirit that gives the divine to the idea of 
His personality. The Son of Man they may know, but not the 
Son of God. They may know Christ in Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke, but not in John. “No man can call Jesus Lord, but by__ 
the Holy Ghost.” Christ in the spirit is by faith; Christ in the 

letter is by intellect. 

8 


58 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


identifying Himself with the Holy Spirit, and 
His second coming with the coming of the Spirit, 
He says, “J will not leave you comfortless , 1 
will come unto you.” That is, in the Com- 
forter, Jesus would return as a spiritual Saviour 
— to comfort them, to be with them, and in 
them. * 

§ 20 . — All essential truth spoken by Christ to be 
preserved by the suggestion of the Spirit. 

John xiv, 20, — “But the Comforter, which is 
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in 
my name,f he shall teach you all things, and 
bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever 
I have said unto you.” 

This is a divine guarantee that the communi- 
cation of truth by the apostles should be perfect. 
They were to be guided into all truth necessary 
to the ends of their mission — truth adequate to 
the enlightenment and sanctification of men. And 
if, through the imperfection of memory, any ne- 


* Note.. — That the Spirit comes in Christ’s personality is here 
distinctly and authoritavely affirmed. 

f “Name” is used in the New Testament synonymously with 
character, nature, or personality. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


59 


cessary words had been forgotten ; or if, through 
the imperfection of apprehension, any words had 
been wrongly construed, the Spirit would suggest 
the idea in such form and connection that it 
would be expressed in its true import; albeit in 
the phraseology peculiar to the character and 
culture of the apostolic witness. Many volumes 
may have been spoken by the Saviour in order 
to convey to the apostles the required ideas, yet 
nothing necessary for human good in all His 
teachings was to be lost. The Comforter, by 
quickening conception, guiding in the law of 
suggestion, and giving spiritual unction to the 
soul, would “guide them into all truth.” 

§ 21 . — The spiritual sense promised to the apostles. 

The apostles, as we have noticed, were in the 
Old Testament state until after the outpouring 
of the Spirit. The human person of Christ, too, 
being before their eyes, shut out, in a sense, 
“the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
God,” as it subsequently “ shone in the face of 
the Redeemer.”* Jesus recognized their want of 

* 2 Cor. v, 16, — “ Yea, though we have known Christ after the 
flesh yet now, henceforth, know we him (in this sense) no more. 


60 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


spiritual strength and spiritual insight, and prom- 
ised them more light and better appreciation after 
His ascension. And because the spiritual import 
of His teachings required a sense to which they 
could not then attain, He often spake to them 
in parables that might be spiritually construed at 
the full time. The exposition of these parables 
He sometimes gave, yet they continued to con- 
strue them in the Old Testament sense. Even 
when they supposed that they understood their 
teacher, as in John xvi, 29, 80, still they did 
not perceive ; and the import of Christ’s replies 
indicates their continued dullness, and refers them 
to coming events, that would be evidence to 
themselves of their misapprehension. “ Do ye 
now believe?” — ye think ye do; but when I 
shall have been crucified, as I have said, instead 
of understanding the true state of the case, ye 
will all be scattered, every man to his own, as 
if My mission had failed. But notwithstanding 
their dullness in the presence of His humanity, 
He promised them, in the future, eyes to see the 
spiritual sense , and ears to hear the words now 
spoken to them as the words of God. “ These 
things,” said He (John xvi, 25), “ have I spoken 
unto you in proverbs : but the time cometh, when 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


61 


I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but 
shall show you plainly of the Father.” That is, 
they did not now perceive the full import of 
the words which spoke of His Divinity ; but the 
time was approaching when the Father’s charac- 
ter, revealed by Him, would be revealed in their 
consciousness by the influx of the Holy Spirit. 
“At that day,” He said, u Ye shall know that 
I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in 
you.” 

This knowledge, which they were to possess 
after their spiritual illumination, would be through 
a manifestation of Himself by the Holy Spirit, 
and in this manifestation all the attributes of the 
Father would be revealed to them through Him. 
John xvi, 14, 15 , — The Holy Spirit , when He is 
come, “shall glorify me: for he shall receive of 
mine, and shall show it unto you. All things 
that the Father hath are mine : therefore said I, 
that he shall receive of mine, and shall show it 
unto you.” Hence, the Saviour said to His dis- 
ciples in this connection — ye ought to “ rejoice 
that I go to the Father, because the Father is 
greater than I.” That is, the Father sends the 
Word and is revealed by it. When I depart in 
the flesh the Spirit will come and give divinity 


62 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


and power to My personality, and thus all the 
attributes of the Father will be manifested unto 
you more clearly than ye can now perceive them. 
This revelation of the Godhead of the Father 
through the Son would be more full and clear 
after the advent of the Spirit ; not only because 
the Spirit was veiled and localized in a sense in 
Christ’s humanity,* but because when the Word 
returned to the bosom of the Father, having re- 
vealed by the crucifixion the perfect love of the 
Godhead, then by the Spirit, in the personality 
of Christ, the Father would be revealed in love 
both by Word and Spirit to the human soul. 

§ 22 . — Further exposition of the promise that greater 
light and power would be given by the Spirit 
after Christ's ascension. 

There are plain passages! in which Christ 
teaches that the Spirit could not be given to the 
world, in its plenitude and perfection, until He 
had finished His work on earth and ascended to 
heaven. Guided by the Scriptures, we can see 
reasons for the statements which promise this in- 

* See Hare’s “ Mission of the Comforter.” Notes, 
f Luke xxiv, 49; John xiv, 12, 16; and xvi, 7, 13. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT \ 


63 


crease of spiritual power. The great sacrifice was 
not yet offered. This was a revelation of Divine 
love more perfect than had before been mani- 
fested on earth ; the Spirit, therefore, who was 
not to speak of Himself, but to use the spiritual 
material furnished by the Redeemer, had truth 
in more plenitude, and could make clearer mani- 
festations of Divine love after than before the 
crucifixion. 

Besides this, the resurrection and ascension of 
Christ were evidences that His work had been 
accepted of the Father. When there was evi- 
dence that the Father raised Jesus from the dead, 
then in the minds of all those who believed the 
fact, the rejection of Christ would produce a 
sense of sin against God. The resurrection of 
Christ from the dead was absolute evidence that 
God approved and authorized His work ; hence 
the Spirit, by the resurrection, would not only 
reveal greater love by the sacrifice of Christ to 
those who received Him,* but greater guilt in 
those who had rejected Him. In view of this, 
Jesus said, “When the Comforter shall come, he 
will convince the world of righteousness, because 
I gt) to the Father.” My teaching, having re- 


* i Peter I, 3. 


64 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


ceived visibly the sanction of the Father, will 
become the rule of righteousness by which men 
will be convicted of sin. 

These manifestations, to be used by the Spirit 
thenceforward, were powers existing after the fact 
that did not exist before, except imperfectly in 
type and shadow. Hence greater spiritual power 
was promised to attend, and did accordingly at- 
tend, the preaching of the apostles after the 
advent of the Spirit, than had accompanied the 
preaching of Christ before. John xiv, 12, — 
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth 
on me, the works that I do shall he do also; 
and greater works than these shall he do ; be- 
cause I go unto my Father.” 

The apostles likewise, after they were “ con- 
verted,” as Peter needed to be, into the spiritual 
dispensation,* taught that the promises of Christ, 
in regard to the plenitude of life by the Spirit, 
did not refer to the days of His flesh, but to 
the greater work, in a spiritual sense, which 
would be accomplished after His ascension. John 
vii, 37-39, — “In the last day, that great day of 
the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any 

* Are not many men of our day still partly in the Old Testa- 
ment State? 


THE HOT Y SPIRIT. 


65 


man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 
He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath 
said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living 
water.” But this did not have its full import 
that day, nor did it find its true verification 
until the advent of the Spirit. The apostle there- 
fore adds, as an exposition of the words, c ‘ But 
this spake he of the Spirit, which they that be- 
lieve on him should receive : for the Holy Crhost 
was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet 
glorified .” 

When we add to these thoughts the fact 
already alluded to, that Christ, as the Son of 
Man, could be personally present in one place 
only at the same time, but the Spirit would, 
after its advent, be an everywhere-present revealer 
of Christ — then the greater glory to be mani- 
fested after the days of Christ’s ministry is 
clearly apparent. The words of Christ then be- 
came “ spirit and life ” to those who believed, 
and all the efficacy contained in a perfect reve- 
lation of the Divine character which had been 
given by the mission of Christ, was used to 
quicken and sanctify the human soul. 

“ It was expedient,” therefore, after the truth 
had been perfectly revealed, and the material of 
5 


66 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


sanctification fully provided, that Christ, in His 
humanity, “should go away,” in order that by 
His spiritual presence He might be every where 
present with each disciple and with His churches, 
until the end of the world. After the ascension, 
therefore, the presence of the Spirit is spoken of 
as Christ’s own presence. “ Wherever two or 
three are gathered together in my name, there 
I am in the midst of them ; ” and “ Lo ! I am 
with you always, unto the end of the world.” 

According to the foregoing exposition, while 
the physical power of miracles* was manifested, 
perhaps, in a less degree after the ascension of 
Christ than before, the spiritual power of truth 
in the souls of men was in all senses great!}- 

* It cannot be questioned that miracles were necessary to moral 
progress in the time of Christ. No truth, as from God, could 
have been received without them. All men believed that their 
divinities granted power to their votaries to work miracles. Either 
the new religion must be introduced by miracles, or God must, by 
miracle, destroy the conviction in all minds that miracles could 
be wrought. In that age a miracle was the only means of con- 
necting the authority of God with truth. I must believe the facts 
stated as miracles, but how the effects were produced , whether 
subjectively in the minds of the witnesses — whether in accord- 
ance with, or by control of natural laws is not important. The 
effect of the miracle, not the form, was the necessity. [See 
Phil, of Plan of Salvation, Chapter iii.] 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


67 


increased. At the advent of the Spirit, on the 
day of Pentecost, a mighty work of love and 
power began in the world, the energy and glory 
of which will not end until the “kingdoms of 
this world shall become the kingdoms of our 
Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for 
ever and ever.” 

§ 23. — The endowment of the apostles with special 
powers and prerogatives. 

After the Redeemer had, “ by the Holy Grhost, 
given commandments to his apostles ,” immediately 
previous to His ascension, He gave them their 
commission, accompanied by the promise of His 
presence and supervision in the great endeavor 
to bring the world to believe in Him as the 
manifestation of the true God — “Go ye there- 
fore and teach all nations, baptizing them into 
the [one] name * of the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and 

* The “ one name,” including all the attributes and qualities 
of the three personalities, the Father, Son, Holy Ghost. By 
one conception of our finite minds we cannot compass God in 
all His relations to us. God is what the three conceptions — 
Father — Son — Holy Spirit, united, reveal Him to be. 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


lo ! I am with you always, even unto the end 
of the dispensation.” 

At the appointed time and place, the promise 
that they should be endowed for their work by 
a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit 
was fulfilled. . Acts ii, 1-4 — “When the day of 
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with 
one accord in one place. And suddenly there 
came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing 
mighty wind, and it filled the house where they 
were sitting. And there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon 
each of them. And they were all filled with the 
Holy G-host , and began to speak with tongues 
as the spirit gave them utterance.” When thus 
“baptized with the Holy Ghost,” they were at 
once endowed with impulse, courage, and spirit- 
ual insight, which they did not possess before ; 
and it may be that the tongues that sat upon 
them gave their thoughts articulation on this 
special occasion, so that the strangers from for- 
eign cities present in Jerusalem, each heard the 
speaker’s thoughts enunciated in his own lan- 
guage. Hence immediate and immense impression 
was produced. The work of the world’s regen- 
eration was begun. Many priests and people of 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


69 


Jerusalem, together with a multitude from foreign 
cities, became subject to the faith. The supreme 
council of the nation was agitated and divided, 
and there was neither policy nor power that 
could suppress the progress of the new life. 

The apostles, before dull and literal in their 
sense, had now a clear apprehension of the spirit- 
ual nature of Christ’s mission, and of the ap- 
proaching dissolution of the local and imperfect* 
ritual of Moses. For declaring the abrogation of 
the Mosaic economy, Stephen was put to death, 
as his Maste had been before, by the malice of 
the rulers. The witnesses suborned against him 
said (Acts vi, 18, 14), “ This man ceaseth not 
to speak blasphemous words against this holy 
place, and the law: for we have heard him say, 
that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this 
place, and change the rites which Moses delivered 
us.” 

The apostles were thus evidently endowed not 
only with an understanding of the spiritual mis- 
sion of Christ, but likewise with a knowledge 
in some respects of the future purposes of God, 


* “ Imperfect,” not in its adaptation to its place and work 
as an introductory dispensation, but imperfect in light, love, and 
righteousness. “Grace and truth are by Jesus Christ.” 


TO 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


although they may not have known the form 
nor the precise time in which those purposes 
would be accomplished. When, therefore, the 
Gospel had been preached, “ first at Jerusalem, 
and Judea, and Samaria,” the disciples were, by 
persecution, “scattered abroad,” in order that the 
truth they taught might be carried “ to the ends 
of the earth.” Saul of Tarsus, who had held 
the clothes of those who stoned Stephen, was 
converted. The college of apostles was complete. 
The partition wall between the Jews and Gentiles, 
as indicated to Peter in a vision, was broken 
down, and the streams of Gospel light and life 
flowed out to the Gentiles. 


§ 24. — The apostles affirm their consciousness of 
special endowment . 

The apostles constantly claimed that God by 
His Spirit was present in their endeavors. Hence 
the sin of Ananias and Sapphira was declared 
to be sin against the Spirit of God. They 
“ preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven ;” and claimed distinctly to 
speak by inspiration of the Spirit. 1 Cor. ii, 12, 
13, — “ Now we have received, not the spirit of 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


71 


the world, but the spirit that is of God; that 
we might know the things that are freely given 
to us of God. Which things also we speak, not 
in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but 
ivhich the Holy Crhost teacheth ; comparing spirit- 
ual things with spiritual.” They understood, 
likewise, the doctrine propounded in the pre- 
ceding sections. The Holy Spirit in their minds 
was the same as Christ in them. “ It pleased 
Crod ,” says Paul (Gal. i, 16), “ to reveal his Son 
in me, that I might preach him among the Gen- 
tiles.”* To those whom they ordained, they said 
(2 Tim. i, 14), “ That good thing which was 
committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost 
which dwelleth in us.” By the laying on of 
hands,! by those who possessed the Spirit, they 
claimed that the Spirit was communicated to 
others. And in addressing the epistles to the 

* A revelation of Christ in the soul by the Spirit was neces- 
sary in the early period in order to preach the gospel ; should 
it not be so in all periods of the church ? 

f The doctrine of the laying on of hands will be better 
understood hereafter. When the power of the Holy Spirit en- 
ergizes in the souls of administrators, its communication to others 
will be more apparent than it ordinarily is in the present age. 
Apostolic succession is by the Holy Spirit. Laying on of hands 
in this sense is a cardinal doctrine (Heb. vi, 2). 


72 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


seven churches of’ Asia, and through them to the 
churches in later ages, it is written, “ Hear what 
the Spirit saith unto the churches.” 

Thus, the internal consciousness of the apostles 
was true to the external manifestation. “ The 
Holy Ghost was witness for them while they 
accomplished their work “ by signs and wonders, 
and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, 
according to his will.”* 


§ 25. — The providence of God working together 
with the Spirit in furthering the Gospel by 
the instrumentality of the apostles. 

It has been shown, we think beyond doubt, in 
the preceding chapters of this series of books, 
that the Divine energy, operating through all 
ages and dispensations, wrought to an end fore- 
seen from the beginning ; that God is accom- 
plishing a plan in the earth, established upon 
fixed principles and developed by fixed laws; a 
plan which unites the kingdoms of nature with 
each other — the physical with the moral; a plan 
which extends itself from the form and propor- 


* Heb. ii, 4. 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


73 


tions of the original atoms of matter, onward to 
the moral creation in man ; and onward still until 
it shall ultimate in a perfect physical and moral 
condition beyond the present.* Jesus said, “My 
Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” I came 
“ to finish the work which the Father hath given 
me to do ” — L e., to fulfill the ritual of Moses, 
put an end to its burdens, and develop its lim- 
ited economy into the final spiritual dispensation 
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

Hence the Divine Providence and the Divine 
Spirit were co-workers in the spread of the gos- 
pel.f Events so transpired, by Divine interposi- 
tion, that the knowledge of truth was advanced, 
whether the providence, in a temporal sense, was 
propitious or otherwise. The apostles became 
witnesses at Jerusalem, at Samaria, and to the 
Gentiles. When their work was done at Jeru- 
salem they were, by the providence of God, dis- 

* See “ God revealed in the Process of Creation, and by the 
Manifestation of Christ.” — Book I. 

\ When Jesus commissioned His disciples and sent them forth 
to preach the gospel, He said, “All power in heaven and on 
earth is given unto me.” And those who have eyes to see can 
discern the providence of God working with the truth of the 
gospel in producing the moral progress of the race. 


74 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


persed throughout Judea and Asia Minor. Saul 
aided to banish and scatter the witnesses, and 
thus, as a persecutor, his agency was overruled 
to accomplish the same object which he after- 
wards voluntarily accomplished as an apostle. 
When the work was mostly done with the Jews, 
the case of Cornelius, and other like incidents, 
introduced thoughtful Gentiles into the gospel 
kingdom. Even the honest difference of Paul 
and Barnabas — who, by the dictation of the Spirit, 
had been sent out as missionaries from the Church 
at Antioch — was made a means of disseminating 
more widely the truth among both Jews and 
Gentiles in Europe and Asia. The public trials 
of the apostles before magistrates, and their prov- 
idential deliverances, tended to the same end. 
In such cases provision was made for their special 
guidance ; and they were instructed to depend on 
the interposition by the Spirit in their minds. 
Mark xiii, 11, — “ Take no thought beforehand, 
neither premeditate :* but whatsoever shall be 
given you in that hour, that speak ye : for 

* The law of suggestion is so compact in men of cold tem- 
perament and wary mind, — thought is so collated by caution 
and premeditation, that there seems often no room for even the 
Holy Spirit to interpose a suggestion. 


THE HOLY SPIRIT 


75 


it is not you that speak, but the Holy Grhost” 
Hence, by natural and connected incidents, in 
which the blind could see no providence, Paul 
was brought before the rulers at Jerusalem, at 
Csesarea, in the Islands of the Sea, at Rome ; all 
in accordance with the pre-statement in his com- 
mission, in regard to the class before which he 
should testify, and the manner in which, during 
his ministry, he should glorify God. 

In the imprisonments of the apostle, too, the 
design of God was especially propitious. The 
most precious treatises, inspired and uninspired, 
which the Church possesses, have been written 
in prison. We could not do without the Epistle 
to the Philippians, nor that to Timothy. Nor 
could we well spare the 44 Pilgrim’s Progress,” 
nor the prison thoughts of Penn, Baxter, and 
other holy men of the modern age. The devil, 
by casting saints into prison,* has aided to cast 
himself out of the Church of God. Evil is made 
subservient to ultimate good. 

But not only in regard to the general move- 

* Rev. ii, io, ii, — “Fear none of those things which thou 
shalt suffer. Behold the devil shall cast some of you into 
prison, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faith- 
ful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.” 


76 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


merits of the apostles in the cities and nations 
of the Old World, but likewise in the time and 
direction of their travels, and in their personal 
efforts for the conversion of individuals, the prov- 
idence and Spirit of Christ combined to guide 
their agency. If they devised plans contrary to 
the Divine plan, they were prevented from ful- 
filling them. Acts xvi, 6 — “ When Paul and 
Timothy had gone through Phrygia and the re- 
gion of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy 
Crhost to preach the Word in Asia, after they 
were come to Mysia, they essayed to go into By- 
thinia: but the Holy Spirit suffered them not” 
The gospel had been offered and urged in Asia 
so far as the preparation of the people and the 
justice and mercy of God at that time required; 
hence they were directed by a vision to go over 
into Europe, and help the few who labored to 
promote gospel interests in Macedonia. 

It was the Spirit (Acts xi, 12) that bade Peter 
visit the Roman officer at Csesarea, and in order 
that the gospel might be carried into Ethiopia, 
“ the Spirit said unto Philip,” (Acts viii, 29), 
“ Go near to the chariot of the Eunuch,” who, 
as he traveled, read in the prophecies of Isaiah 
(liii, 7, 8) — a passage foreshadowing the sacrifice 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


77 


of Christ. The disciple thus sent by the Spirit 
was invited into the conveyance. The Eunuch 
was instructed and baptized, and carried the gos- 
pel in his heart into the midst of Ethiopia. The 
appointed work of the deacon being thus done, 
the “ Spirit caught away Philip , who was found 
at Azotus ; and passing through, he preached in 
all the cities until he came to Caesarea.” 

Thus “ filled with the Spirit,” and guided by 
providence, the apostles of Christ fulfilled their 
mission; — preaching the gospel of the kingdom 
in “ demonstration of the Spirit, and with power;” 
gathering churches ; “ ordaining elders in every 
city ;” and writing letters to guide the life and 
perfect the work of righteousness in the minds 
of believers. The summing-up of their life-labor, 
as it stood related to God and men, is striking 
and instructive. 2 Cor. vi, 4-10, — “In all things 
approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in 
much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in 
distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, 
in labors, in watchings, in fastings ; — by pure- 
ness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kind- 
ness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by 
the word of truth, by the power of God, by the 
armor of righteousness on the right hand and on 


78 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report 
and good report ; — as deceivers, and yet true ; 
as unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and 
behold we live ; as chastened, and not killed , 
as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet 
making many rich : as having nothing, and yet 
possessing all things.” 

Behold how the commissioned apostles of Jesus 
Christ “ fought the good fight of faith,” until 
they “ finished their course,” sealed their testi- 
mony with their blood, and departed to be with 
Christ. They rest from their labors, but their 
fruit remaineth. “ Being dead, they yet speak,” 
and their words are still rendered efficacious by 
the power of the Holy Ghost to enlighten and 
sanctify the souls of men ; and those who have 
ears to hear still hear them preaching “ Christ 
CRUCIFIED ; THE POWER OF GOD, AND THE WIS- 
DOM of God, to the salvation of every one 


THAT BELIEVETH. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


79 


CHAPTER V. 


THE UNION OF THE WORD AND SPIRIT IN THE 
PROCESS OF SANCTIFICATION. 

We have seen that Christ revealed the rule of 
human duty, both in precept and example, and 
that no rule of life for men can be perfect with- 
out both of these.* And having given the rule 
and manifested perfectly the Divine character, in 
closing Ilis mission, He promised that after His 
ascension “ the Holy Spirit, which proceedeth from 
the Father,” would be given, through Him, to 
lead the chosen witnesses into all truth, and to 
endow them with spiritual insight, and power 
from on high. And in this the great promise 
was fulfilled, that He would be with them until 
the end of the world, to supervise and to sus- 
tain them in their work. We have seen these 
promises accomplished in the conscious experience 


* See “Philosophy of Plan of Salvation,” chap. x. 


80 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


of the apostles, and by the providence and the 
spiritual power connected with their mission. 
They went every where “ preaching the gospel 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” 
We come now to inquire concerning the relations 
of the Word and Spirit in the work of human 
salvation. 

§ 26. — Does an increase of light imply an increase 
of spiritual power? 

Man, m order to eternal life, needs two things, 
— Truth and Love, — Light and Life, — Word and 
Spirit. Christ came a light into the world, re- 
vealing a standard of life which was above the 
natural ; and to which, therefore, the natural mind 
was apathetic and averse.* Perhaps this “ higher 
law” implied an advanced dispensation of the 
Spirit, in order that man might be able to ap- 
preciate and obey it. Hence, in order to con- 
formity to the new standard of duty, man is to 
be “ born again from above.” He becomes “ a 
new creature in Christ Jesus,” who is the head 
of a new species of humanity. The germs of all 

* “ That which is born of the flesh, is flesh ” — “ is of the 
earth, earthy.” 


THE HOI Y SPIRIT 


81 


new species are by Divine interposition. Hence 
the income of the Word and the Spirit would 
be in the order of the Divine working, and ac- 
cording to the law of progressive development. 

However this may be best stated, it is an ad- 
mitted truth, that with the increased light of the 
Word, which required a higher attainment in 
moral excellency, there came, at the same time, 
increased life and strength by the Holy Spirit. 

Let us look, then, at the related offices of the 
Word and Spirit as revealed in the Scriptures. 
We will consider them first separately, that we 
may the better understand their relations to each 
other, and the necessity of their union in the 
work of redemption. 

§ 27. — Of the Living Word as a rule of duty. 

We assume again, what has been elsewhere 
shown,* that precept and example combined is 
the only perfect form of instruction ; and that 
example, in order to be a rule of duty adapted 
to human beings, must be a human example; be- 
cause men could not follow the example of an 


* Philosophy of Plan of Salvation, chap. x. 


82 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


angel, nor of any nature different from their 
own. 

Now the apostles understood the necessity of 
the incarnation in this respect. Christ’s character, 
manifested by His life, was the model into which 
they sought to mould humanity. He was “ the 
mark of the prize of the high calling” to which 
they struggled to attain, while they invited others 
to the same endeavor. 

Jesus said (John xvii, 18, 19), “As the Father 
hath sent me into the world, even so have I also 
sent them into the world. And for their sakes 
I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanc- 
tified, through the truth.” And referring, no 
doubt, to this principle — perhaps to this expres- 
sion — the author of the letter to the Hebrews 
says (ii, 10, 11), “ For it became him, for whom 
are all things, and by whom are all things, in 
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the cap- 
tain of their salvation perfect through suffering. 
For both he that sanctifieth and they who are 
sanctified are all of one ; for which cause he is 
not ashamed to call them brethren.” That is, 
Christ assumed a sanctified humanity in order 
that His followers might be sanctified by con- 
formity to His image. Hence He was “ not 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


83 


ashamed to call them brethren.” They were, by 
assimilation to His life and spirit, raised from 
the sphere of the earthly, mortal, Adamic species, 
into the sphere of a new spiritual life, of which 
Christ was Himself the head and elder brother. 


§ 28 . — Necessity in reason for a perfect rule of 
human duty . 

There is a reason in the nature of man re- 
quiring the revelation of a perfect rule of duty. 
It is not only true that man had lost the knowl- 
edge of both the true God and the true man, 
and could therefore settle no rule of duty for 
himself in regard to either ; but it is further 
true, that in the absence of a perfect rule of 
righteousness, and often in its presence, there is 
that in man which leads him to establish for 
himself an imperfect standard of life. Man, by 
an impulse of his nature, always measures himself 
by some standard of character, and judges him- 
self thereby, and the main difficulty which hinders 
moral progress is, that men are prone to measure 
themselves by standards that will produce within 
them a sense of self-complacency rather than of 
conviction of sin. Even malefactors, who live in 


84 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


communities, have a standard of character among 
themselves by which they seek and obtain honor 
one of another. And from the outlaw up to the 
moral citizen of good natural qualities, each one 
has some ideal standard by which he judges of 
himself. The moralist usually compares himself 
with some professor of religion, whose character 
he deems to be no better, or even worse than 
his own. This comparison gives him a feeling 
of ease and self-complacency. Instead of stimu- 
lating, it prevents moral progress. Hence the 
more moral the character of any one may be 
who does not receive Christ as the standard by 
which he judges himself, the more difficult it 
will be for him to have a sense of sin and of 
personal unworthiness. His measurement of him- 
self by the life of other imperfect persons pro- 
duces a spirit just the opposite of that which 
he should possess, and which he would possess 
if he measured himself by the Divine standard of 
human character. If he measured his character, 
and judged his motives by the unselfish life of 
Jesus, he would see his sinfulness and feel con- 
trite and penitent ; but measuring himself by 
false and imperfect standards, he deceives him- 
self, and must remain unhumbled and self-justi- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


85 


lied. Men are often unconscious of the fact; but 
the disposition “to measure themselves by them- 
selves” is natural to every human mind. And 
every one who thus estimates his own moral 
character by a comparison with others, will re- 
main self-justified and self-deceived until he dies. 

And not only the unprofessing world, but the 
professed followers of Christ, by “measuring them- 
selves among themselves, and comparing them- 
selves by themselves, are not wise.” They satisfy 
themselves with the forms of piety, while they 
possess neither gospel faith nor gospel practice. 
They justify their own sin by the sin of some 
other, and thus accumulate the sins of many 
others in their own character. This is unwise 
and wicked. A false standard of judgment neces- 
sarily causes men to form a false estimate of 
themselves. Paul said he dare not be of the 
number who thus deceived themselves; nor would 
he compare himself with any standard except 
“ the measure of the rule which Christ had ex- 
tended to him.” 

Now in Christ a true rule of duty is provided, 
by which if any man measure himself, he will 
see his character as it really is in the sight of 
God. If a carpenter were to measure his work 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


by a false rule, when a true one was offered 
and urged upon him, he would be at the same 
time a fool and a sinner ; and in the end both 
he and his work would be condemned. So all 
individuals who measure themselves and judge 
of themselves by a false moral standard, in the 
presence of the true one, must be condemned 
when the true rule of judgment is applied to 
the work of their life. To meet this appetency 
of the mind, the Divine standard in the example 
and precept of Christ is provided, and, whether 
we are willing to judge ourselves by it or not, 
God will judge us by it. A government does 
not judge men by their own factitious standards, 
but always by its own published rule of duty. 
So God will judge the world by Jesus Christ.* 
“ The words which he has spoken unto us will 
judge us at the last day.” f 


§ 29 . — A perfect rule of life the only principle of 
moral progress . 

A perfect standard of life and motive, in the 
light of which men may see their moral delin- 
quencies, is a necessity in moral government. It 


* Acts xvii, 31. 


f John xii, 48. 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


87 

is one of the essential requisites by which alone 
moral progress can be promoted among men. A 
sense of present imperfection is an absolute pre- 
requisite to moral advancement. A man can 
have no impulse from his conscience or his rea- 
son to go forward to higher moral attainments 
unless he sees and feels present deficiencies in 
himself ; and this he can see only in the light 
of a standard that is above his present character, 
and by which his present condition is condemned; 
while he is at the same time invited and en- 
couraged to rise to a higher sphere of life. 

And, furthermore, in order to the perfection 
of moral beings, this standard must be such a 
one, that while it approves and stimulates the 
upward effort, yet it is not attained at any point 
short of moral completeness of human character. 
Whenever the soul reaches a point that there 
is no standard to convict it of imperfection, its 
further attainment is impossible, because conscience 
and reason, instead of prompting it forward, would 
require its quiescence in its present moral con- 
dition.* Hence, until men are “ holy as God is 

* Thus Pagan nations, as China and India, have made no 
progress for a thousand years. They can not rise above their 
standards. Christian nations will make constant progress, be- 


88 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


holy,” the character of Christ will furnish a 
standard that will convict them of sin, and thus 
give impulse to moral progress. 

Upon this “ mark of the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus” the Christian 
fixes his eye; and as he advances he finds Christ 
ever before him. In the light of a perfect ex- 
ample he sees his defects in motive, in practice, 
and in spirit ; and yet the infinite love of the 
Divine Guide strengthens and encourages those 
who follow Him in labor for the temporal and 
spiritual good of men. As an artist aiming to 
copy a perfect picture — the excellence of the 
model elevates his aim at the same time that it 
inspires his endeavors. And if the patron of the 
artist bestows his highest reward for the best 
exertion of the disciple, then, whatsoever degree 
of perfection he may attain, while he will be 
humbled by comparing his work with that of 
the master, yet his labor will be happy in its 

cause their standard in Christ Jesus is always above them. 
Some churches have been anchored back in the shadows of the 
dark ages by creeds written in past periods. And even in the 
present age there were those in the enlightened council which 
assembled in Boston, in June, 1865, who desired to repudiate 
the principle of John Robinson, that knowledge of Holy Scrip- 
ture is progressive. 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


89 


progress and happy in its completion. So the 
Christian has hope and favor by the way ; and 
while he is humbled by a sense of his imper- 
fection, yet he knows that “ his labors for con- 
formity to the image of Christ are not in vain 
in the Lord.” 


§ 80 . — The truth being given in the life and precept 
of Christ , the second necessary thing is the work 
of the Spirit. 

A perfect rule of duty may be given, but to 
know the truth is not to love it, nor to do it. 
Approbation of the law does not always produce 
obedience to the law, nor love to the law-giver. 
Knowledge increases guilt, if the truth be not 
obeyed : hence the most intelligent men are some- 
times the most base and selfish. 

Man is a being of moral as well as of intel- 
lectual powers. He not only has intelligence to 
know the truth, but he has conscience and af- 
fections ; and it is the life and impulse of these 
that give the truth power with the will. Men 
may, by an effort of intellect, enlighten each 
other. They may change each others opinions in 

regard to the truth of the Christian religion. 

12 * 


90 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


But in all merely intellectual changes, the heart 
or disposition remains the same. Correct opinions 
are in order to correct morals, but a man’s 
opinions may be .right, while his heart and life 
are wrong. Colton wrote more moral precepts 
than any man of his time, and violated them all. 
We can put truth into the mind of our fellow- 
man no farther than the understanding. We 
can not reach the moral nature by light alone. 
When one man changes the opinions of another 
on moral subjects, something is accomplished ; 
but to give a disposition to love and obey truth 
is a different thing. The Holy Spirit alone sinks 
the truth through the intelligence into the con- 
science and the affections. 

Truth is light, but it is not life. Alone it is 
like the sun in winter — it shines but to en- 
lighten a dead, cold earth. With the Spirit, it 
is like the sun in summer — it shines with life 
in its light , vivifying nature and producing blade, 
flower and fruitage. So the light of divine truth 
shines in the darkness of the natural mind, and 
the darkness appreciates it not, until by the 
Spirit it becomes u spirit and life” to the soul. 
“ In him was life, and that life was the light 
of men.” Christ, as the sun of righteousness, 
shines into believing hearts with life in His light. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


91 


§ 31. — Rationale of the Spirit's operation in 
connection with the truth. 

Truth never gives life to the heart and con- 
science so that they are empowered to govern 
the will, unless there be a sense of God in it. 
This fact is verified in all history, as well as in 
the experience of individual men. The sages of 
antiquity perceived and announced many moral 
truths of the highest value, — some of them syn- 
onymous with those of the New Testament. But 
what care men for moral truth when it is uttered 
only by one whom they esteem as a fellow- 
mortal equal with themselves — one who has no 
authority to prescribe duty or to command obe- 
dience ? Of what avail, in a moral estimate, was 
the wisdom of Plato, or the morals of Socrates, 
Seneca, or Tully ! The moral precepts of Seneca 
were given to the Romans at the same time with 
those of Christ ; in an age when the highest 
intelligence co-existed in the empire with the 
greatest profligacy. Seneca’s morals had no more 
influence upon the character of those who re- 
ceived and believed them than they had upon 
the statues in the Pantheon. Seneca himself was 
accused of profligacy ; and he was both the in- 


92 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


structor and victim of the worst of the Romans. 
The people believed his teachings and grew 
worse, while those who believed the teachings 
of the gospel in the same age grew better. The 
cause of this difference is the vital point. All 
experience teaches that truth, separate from a 
sense of the authority of God, does not become 
life in man’s moral nature. It has no efficacy 
to quicken the conscience or to purify the heart. 
There is no moral efficacy even in inspired truth, 
unless the soul recognizes in it the will and 
heart of God in regard to man. The words of 
Jesus had not the same efficacy before the ad- 
vent of the Spirit as afterwards. Jesus taught, 
as we have noticed, why this was so. The 
God-sense was not connected with His teaching 
in the mind of others until after His resurrec- 
tion and the advent of the Spirit ; but when 
the Holy Ghost came, “ he convinced men of 
sin, righteousness, and judgment,” because He 
attached the authority and will of God to the 
life and teaching of Jesus. While they viewed 
Christ as a man like themselves they felt less 
sense of obligation ; but when God became con- 
nected with His mission, by the miraculous 
resurrection, and by the advent of the Spirit, 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT . 


93 


then the gospel which He had proclaimed be- 
came, to every one that believed, the hope of sal- 
vation, and the rule of duty and of judgment. 

We are anxious that the reader should appre- 
hend this point in the discussion. But we may 
not repeat further what we have written in 
other connections. We re-affirm the principle 
that God has so constituted the soul that con- 
science will enforce no moral duty unless it sees 
God in it. The conscience is made to respond to 
the voice of Grod , as moral Ruler , and it will 
answer to no other . A false faith may pervert 
the conscience to enforce a false rule, because 
faith has the same effect upon our moral powers 
as knowledge: but this only proves that a sense 
of God by faith is the natural life of the con- 
science, and that there is no other power to en- 
force truth but conscience. It proves also that 
revealed truth, or truth that carries the author- 
ity of God with it, is an absolute necessity in 
order to the regeneration of men. Truth, by 
human authority alone, can not accomplish the 
end. Hence the advent of the Spirit was the 
great promise, because it gave the God-sense to 
Christ’s life and teaching. The apostles did not 
move from their place until it descended upon 


94 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


them : then, illumined and empowered, they went 
forth (Eph. iii, 9) “ to make all men see what 
is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the 
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, 
who created all things by Jesus Christ.” 


§ 32 . — The preceding views illustrated by experience. 

The preceding views will be recognized as 
verified in the experience of most persons. A 
man may hear the truth without impression at 
one time, and yet, at another time, by the same 
truth , presented, it may be, in a more feeble 
manner, he will be made conscious that he is a 
sinner in the sight of God. In such cases, if 
he will examine his exercises, he will see that 
it is the sense of God’s authority in connection 
with truth, which gives it its efficacy. It is the 
same mind and the same truth, and it may be 
the same instrumentality ; but in one case it 
produces no effect, except an intellectual impres- 
sion, in the other it produces prayer, penitence, 
and reformation of life. Experience thus verifies 
the testimony of the Bible, that the spiritual 
sense is necessary to the efficacy of Divine truth. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


95 


§ 33 . — The sum of preceding deductions. 

The conscience being quickened by the truth 
through the Spirit, the soul is awakened ; the 
heart being affected by the love of Christ, as 
His life and death are exhibited by the Spirit, 
the soul is converted ; and the moral and emo- 
tional nature thus vitalized, act upon the will, 
and produce obedience by influencing it into har- 
mony with the will of Christ. When conscience 
and the heart thus unite their power, they de- 
termine the will potentially. Conscience enforces 
the rule of righteousness as duty to God — the 
heart induces obedience by love to the person 
whose will is obeyed. Hence, as the rule of 
righteousness and the personal will of Christ are 
one , the Redeemer becomes “the way, the truth, 
and the life to every one that belie veth.” 

This revelation of the rule of life by the per- 
sonal example and will of Christ is necessary to 
satisfy the wants, as well as to meet the nature 
of the soul ; obedience to an abstract law , without 
the recognition of a personal will in that law , can 
never satisfy the heart. It is absurd to talk, as 
the skeptics do, of love and obedience to the 


96 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


laws of nature, or to anything impersonal.* Af- 
fectionate obedience, as we have noticed, can be 
exercised only towards a personal being who has 
voluntarily, and in view of our wants, exercised 
himself in goodness towards us. The man who 
talks about a “religion of nature’’ for man, has 
surely not studied the necessities of man's moral 
nature. There can be no affectionate obedience 
to a superior being, except in view of the char- 
acter and action of that being as personally re- 
lated to us. As man is made, the motive to 
obedience must be an apprehension of the char- 
acter and qualities of the law-giver. Hence the 
Spirit comes to us in the name of Christ, ex- 
hibiting the Father in the person of the Son, 
and exhibiting His law and His love together 
as prerogative and attribute of His person. Thus 
the soul finds motive in Christ for affectionate 
obedience to Him as Lord and Saviour. Oh, the 
length, and the breadth, and the depth, and the 
height of that Divine wisdom which has given 
the rule of duty in connection with a revelation 
of love, and in the one person of Christ ; so 


* See note on Parker, Emerson, and Transcendentalism in 
Appendix. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


97 


that the conscience and affections unite in pro- 
ducing love to the Law-giver ! 


§ 34 . — The union of the Word and Spirit necessary 
in the process of conviction and sanctification. 

In one sense truth gives direction without 
moral impulse, and the Spirit gives moral im- 
pulse without direction. There are multitudes 
who sometimes see the light and desire to obey, 
but “ are not able.” To use a phraseology com- 
mon with such, “ they have no heart.” On the 
contrary, in times of special religious interest in 
any community, many apparently become willing 
to obey who have no right apprehension of the 
example of Christ as the rule of duty. The 
truth in regard to the evil of sin in the sight 
of God is felt by them. The conscience awakes, 
the man in a sense repents, but he is like a 
blind man running from the flames, — he runs to 
stumble, and to stop he knows not where. The 
heart of the man dispossessed of evil demons* 
was swept and garnished, — he had in one sense 
repented from sin, but his mind, although “swept 
and garnished,” remained unoccupied. He had 

* Matt, xii, 44. 

7 


98 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


not enthroned Christ as Lord and Saviour; hence 
the evil returned with greater power. It is only 
when faith connects the precept with the person 
of Christ — His law with His love — that both 
direction and impulse are given to the will. 

There is often, likewise, in the minds of sin- 
cere persons, an imperfect apprehension of truth. 
The character of Christ may be perceived truly 
in one regard, and imperfectly in another. The 
devotee may have faith in a dying Christ, but 
little apprehension of the living Christ as the 
rule of life ; this will stir his emotions, and pro- 
duce love to God without labor for men. The 
Reformer may have faith in the life of Christ ; 
this will move to good works, but such works 
do not flow from that love which purifies the 
heart. The Sectarian may believe in a creed 
rather than in Christ ; this will make him com- 
pass sea and land to make proselytes to a sect 
rather than to the Saviour. Hence faith in the 
living example and dying love of Christ are both 
necessary. A living conscience and heart are the 
only true motive-powers in the service of God. 
These are awakened by a sense of God in truth, 
and by Christ’s suffering in the flesh for us. 
Good works for the temporal and spiritual good 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


99 


of man are the only true life, — these are pro- 
duced by conformity of the human will by love 
to the will of Christ. Thus faith in Christ’s life 
and death combined gives both impulse and di- 
rection to the religious life. And unless our 
motives to action are thus drawn from Christ, 
the impulse and end of our life must be in 
ourselves, — our works will be “dead works,” 
and assimilation to the Divine image can not be 
the result of our activity. 

§ 35 . — The preceding views accord with the rela- 
tions of the Word and Spirit , as they exist in 
both the finite and the Infinite mind . 

In the human mind, and in the Divine mind, 
as presented in preceding pages, the Word, or 
Logos, is the intelligence — the conceived and 
uttered thought or outbirth of the soul. The 
Spirit is back of the Word. It knows* the Word, 
and uses it to reveal its own character to other 
minds, so far as it designs its personal character 
and will to be known. It is thus in the process 

* i Cor. ii, ii, — “ For what man knoweth the things of a 
man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the 
things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” 


L.of C. 


too 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


of human redemption from ignorance and sin : 
the operation of the Divine mind, and the rela- 
tion and manifestation of Word and Spirit, are 
revealed as acting in accordance with this con- 
stitutional method of mental development. The 
Spirit uses the Word — takes of its manifesta- 
tion — and thus through the Word, and by the 
Word, as Messiah or Mediator, reveals God, and 
redeems those who believe. Men are thus “sanc- 
tified by the Spirit through the Truth,” as it 
was lived, spoken, and suffered by the Son of 
God. 


§ 36 . — The preceding views confirmed by the 
teaching of the Scriptures. 

It will not be necessary to recite in this sec- 
tion all the various passages in which the Word 
and Spirit are spoken of in their related efficacy. 
In Scripture the Word is “ the sword of the 
Spirit.” Men are said to be “ sanctified by the 
truth through the Spirit.” The apostles announce 
the relation frequently and clearly ; showing that 
in their own minds the subject was distinctly 
apprehended. Peter, in exhorting believers to the 
exercise of Christian love, says (1 Peter i, 22), 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


101 


44 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying 
the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love 
of the brethren, see that ye love one another 
with a pure heart fervently.” This is the im- 
port of the whole matter, — by the Word and 
Spirit affectionate obedience is produced toward 
God, and fraternal love toward men. 

So the same general view, that truth in the 
mind is a pre-requisite to the permanent and 
perfect work of the Spirit, is set forth by the 
Saviour Himself in the parable of the sower. 
Matt, xiii, — 44 He that heareth the word and com - 
grehendeth it not , straightway the evil one cometh 
and catcheth away that which was sown in his 
heart. But he that receiveth seed into good 
ground is he that heareth the word, and under - 
standeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bring- 
eth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some 
thirty.” 

A reception of the revealed word into an ap- 
preciative mind is necessary in order to the fruit 
of obedience. All fanaticism grows out of a dis- 
severance of the Spirit and the revealed Word. 
All erring enthusiasts are persuaded that the 
Spirit teaches them separate from, or beyond, 
what is written. They do not 44 understand ” 


102 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


that the Spirit does not come to reveal new 
truth, but to use the truth 'which Christ has 
already revealed. Men can be purified only by 
“ obeying, the truth through the Spirit.” The 
man who understands the truth and does not 
obey is a sinner. The man who professes to be 
influenced by the Spirit, while he does not obey 
Christ by a life of labor for human good, is an 
enthusiast.* But if we “abide in Christ” by 
faith , “and his word abide in us” by under- 
standing, we shall then have both the impulse 
of the Spirit and the guidance of the Word. 
Prayer will be answered ; and we “ shall neither 
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 


* See Appendix E, — Cause of Fanaticism 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


108 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE WORK OF CHRIST BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT IN 
THE MINDS OF BELIEVERS. 

“ I will not leave you comfortless : I will come 
unto you.”* The promise of Christ in this lan- 
guage and in other phraseology, to come again 
after His ascension to the Father, is often spo- 
ken of by the sacred writers. There are three 
events to which the promise in some of its 
phrases is applicable. The first, and the most 
important in its spiritual significance, is the com- 
ing of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, to guide, 
comfort, and sanctify believers, and to convince 
the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. 
To His disciples He said, “ I will not leave you 
comfortless : I will come unto you.” This was 
His coming in the Comforter. John xiv, 19, — 
“ The world seeth me no more ; but ye shall 


John xiv, 1 8 . 


101 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


see me ; because I live, ye shall live also.” In 
Him was life, and that life would be light and 
love in them. They would be conscious of His 
indwelling presence, when He should reveal 
Himself to them as He did not to the world. 
This was His first coming. He came again by 
His providence, to destroy the city and the tem- 
ple, and with these the ritual dispensation of 
Moses. The gospel being engrafted upon the 
Old Dispensation, it was fit, in the order of 
progress, that the imperfect should pass away, 
so that the perfect might supervene.* He will 
come again in person, at the end of the Chris- 
tian Dispensation, to judge mankind, to destroy 
the wicked and the world together,! and to in- 
augurate “the new heavens and the new earth, 
in which shall dwell the righteous,” who pos- 
sess eternal life by their union with Him. 

But Christ’s coming by His Spirit is the great 
event of the New Dispensation. The apostles 
themselves did not apprehend, until after the 
fulfillment of the promise, the plenitude and the 

* Heb. xii, 27, — “ Signifieth the removing of those things 
that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things 
which cannot be shaken may remain.” 

2 Pet. iii. 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


105 


power of the blessing which the words indi- 
cated.* 

§ 37. — The twofold office-work of the Spirit. 

The work of the Spirit is twofold, in the 
Church, and in the world, — in the minds of 
those who are reconciled to God, and with the 
minds of the disobedient. 

Whether the Holy Spirit ever influences the 
disobedient, unless it be dispensed through the 
Church — through the minds of believers, as a 
medium, is a question that should receive thought- 
ful consideration. It is one of great practical 
importance ; and, believing that the Divine pro- 
cedure ordinarily is, that the Spirit is dispensed 
to believing and obedient minds, and through 
these to the unregenerate, we will speak of His 
work in this order. 

“ The promise of the Father ” was given first 
to the disciples. To them the Spirit came, in 
power, on the day of Pentecost. They immedi- 
ately began their mission, and preached Christ 
crucified as Lord and Saviour. The Divine Spirit 

* See Appendix, — Primitive views in regard to Christ’s 
second Advent. 


14 


106 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


and Divine providence co-operated with their 
effort. Men were “ pricked in their hearts,’' 
and inquired what they should do. They were 
instructed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; 
and thus believing with their heart, they were 
baptized and added to the churches. 

The necessity of the Spirit’s work, and His 
separate office with the obedient and disobedient 
mind, are stated with great distinctness by the 
Saviour in His last conversation with the disci- 
ples. We will quote the whole passage in this 
place, in order that we may mark the order and 
the significance of the words. The instruction 
which they contain will form for the most part 
the subject matter of succeeding pages. 

John xvi, 7-16, — “I tell you the truth; it 
is expedient for you that I go away : for if I 
go not away, the Comforter will not come unto 
you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 

“ And when he is come, he will convince the 
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: 

“ Of sin, because they believe not on me ; 

“ Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, 
and ye see me no more: 

“ And of judgment, because the Prince of 
this world is judged. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT . 


107 


“ I have yet many tilings to say unto you, 
but ye can not bear them now. Howbeit when 
he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will lead 
you unto all truth : for he shall not speak of 
himself; but whatsoever things he shall hear, 
that shall he speak : and he will show you 
things to come. 

“ He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of 
mine, and shall show it unto you. 

“ All things that the Father hath are mine : 
therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and 
shall show it unto you. 

“ A little while, and ye shall not see me : 
and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, 
because I go to the Father.” 

It is not necessary in this connection to speak 
of the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit in 
the apostolic age. The foregoing passage, which 
specifies the work of the promised Comforter, 
does not include these. Miracles were for a 
sign. They were the divine credentials confirm- 
ing the mission of those who established the 
New Dispensation. As such, they were necessary, 
in view of the state of the human mind, in the 
beginning of all the dispensations. The burden 
of the promise in the New Testament is, con- 


108 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


viction of sin to the world, and sanctification 
to believers, through the truth of Christ , empow- 
ered by the Holy Ghost. The spiritual import of 
the subject is of the highest moment. It speaks 
of the connection where the Divine unites itself 
with the human, in working out the salvation 
of the soul. We will consider it in the several 
aspects presented in the foregoing words of 
Christ, and endeavor to apprehend distinctly the 
process of the Spirit, working by the Truth in 
the believing, and upon the unbelieving, mind. 
First, in the believing mind. 

§ 88. — The experimental import of the statement 
that the Spirit shall not speak of Himself. 

We have referred to this statement in pre- 
ceding pages, — let us now endeavor to gain an 
appreciation of the experimental meaning of the 
words, “ The Spirit shall not speak of Himself 

When the soul is influenced by the Divine 
Messenger, the believer is not led to think of 
the Spirit itself, nor to utter praise in view of 
the person and work of the Spirit ; but the 
person and work of Christ is brought before the 
mind. The Comforter takes of the things that 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


109 


belong to Jesus, and shows them to the soul. 
The self-denial of the Redeemer, the lowliness 
and loveliness of His character, His mercy to 
the sinful, His suffering as a ransom — some view 
of His character or work, as it relates to the 
human soul, is presented; “and while the Chris- 
tian muses the fire burns.” A glow of devotion 
is awakened in his emotions that purifies and 
empowers. 2 Cor. iii, 18, — He “sees as in a 
glass the glory of God, and is changed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as by the 
Spirit of the Lord” 


There is an affluence supplied 
By faith in Christ the crucified, 

Through all the being rife ; 

It is the power that makes us whole — 
A saving unction in the soul — 

It is the Spirit's life. 


The specialty of the statement ought to be 
particularly noted. It is not in accordance with 
the aim and effect of ordinary spiritual inter- 
course. The impression of one spirit upon another 
usually attracts the attention of the one ad- 
dressed to the personality of the one which com- 
municates the thought. But the Spirit of God 


110 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


does not exhibit Himself, but He exhibits the 
personality of Christ to the mind. He awakens 
the soul to introduce the Saviour. The personal- 
ity which the soul sees is that of Jesus ; and 
the truth which the Spirit uses is limited and 
bounded by the Redeemer’s work. The believer 
experiences the fulfillment of the promise, “ He 
shall take of the things that belong to me and 
show them unto you.” 


§ 39. — By exhibiting Christ the Spirit likewise 
exhibits the Father to the soul. 

The Scriptures teach, as we have seen, that 
all the attributes of the Father that are know- 
able by man are revealed in the Son. The Son, 
or Word, is the “outshining of the Father’s 
glory, and the perfect image of His personality. 
Thus the Father in Christ, and Christ by the 
Spirit, is revealed to the obedient mind. “ All 
things that the Father hath are mine: therefore 
said I, he [the Spirit] shall take of mine, and 
show it unto you.” 

It was promised to the apostles that the Spirit 
should form a conscious spiritual union between 
their souls and Christ, and through Christ with 


THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 


Ill 


the Father. John xiv, 20, 23, — 44 At that day 
ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye 
in me, and I in you.” 44 If a man love me he 
will keep my commandments: and my Father 
will love him, and we [Father and Son] will 
come and make our abode with him.” So in 
1 John ii, 14, — 44 Ye have an unction from the 
Holy One, and ye know all things, and if that 
which ye have heard from the beginning remain 
in you, ye shall continue in the Son and in the 
Father.” 

44 1 in them and thou in me ; that they may 
be made perfect in one.” These mystic words 
are true in the consciousness of believers ; and 
the form of this spiritual union is verified in 
the nature of mind. By the Holy Spirit the 
Father is in Christ, and Christ in believers : one 
consciousness of life and love flowing from the 
one God through all individual holy minds in 
the universe. 44 Glory be to the Father, and to 
the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ; as it was in 
the beginning — is now, and ever shall be — world 
without end.” 

How clear, yet how profound and beneficent, 
is the Divine manifestation ! Believers are made 
44 partakers of the Divine nature.” The nature 


112 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


of the Father through the Son is made known 
unto them — and (to repeat an illustration) as 
the rays of light which pass through a colored 
medium take the hues of the medium through 
which they come, so the Spirit ol God, coming 
to us through Christ incarnate, is baptized in 
the humanities of His person, and hence becomes 
the dispenser of the Divine mercy, as that mercy 
was revealed in the flesh. So that (Rom. viii, 
3, 4), “ What the law could not do, in that 
it was weak through the flesh [had no sympa- 
thetic power to touch the emotional nature], 
God sending his own Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the 
flesh: that the righteousness of the law [which 
requires love but can not produce it] might be 
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but 
the Spirit.” 


§ 40 . — The Spirit witnesses to the truth of Divine 
revelation . 

“ He that believeth on the Son of God hath 
the witness in himself” (1 John v, 10) that the 
record which God has given of His Son is true. 
The form of this testimony is obvious. The 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


113 


mental exercises, — the hopes, fears, interests, 
states of mind, which those possessed who be- 
lieved the truth in the age of the apostles, are 
given in the New Testament. These were pro- 
duced by belief of the truth as then revealed. 
By the Holy Spirit the same truth begets the 
same state of mind in believers now that is 
promised in the record, and that was possessed 
by believers of the age when it was spoken. 
The Christian knows therefore that it is the same 
Spirit and the same truth that existed in the 
days of the apostles, because the same effects 
are produced in him, by the same cause, which 
were produced in them. The promise of light, 
comfort, strength, by the Spirit is fulfilled ; and 
he can no more doubt the truth of the Christian 
religion, than he could doubt the word of a 
traveler, who told him of a spring by the way- 
side after he had himself found it as described, 
and tasted the qualities of the water, which re- 
freshed and strengthened him, as it had others. 

This is the assurance of Paul, when he says, 
“ The Holy Ghost also is witness for us.”* He 
predicated his statement, as the passage shows, 
upon the promise given in the Old Testament, 

* Heb. x, 15. 

8 


114 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


that in the time of Christ the “ law should be 
written in the heart.” This was fulfilled in him 
by the Spirit, and therefore he knew, by the 
highest of all evidence, that both the Old Test- 
ament promises and the New Testament expe- 
rience were from God. The one was the counter- 
part of the other. 

Many persons, not apprehending the nature of 
the infallible evidence for spiritual religion, ask 
Why does not God give us now the same mi- 
raculous testimony to the truth of revelation that 
He gave to His ancient people? We have better 
testimony than this : — The presence of Christ by 
His Spirit is better evidence than was His 
presence by the pillar of cloud and fire. The 
one was better adapted to the age of infancy 
and discipline — the other is adapted to the age 
of manhood and reason. In the one Christ was 
present to the sense — in the other He is pres- 
ent to the soul. The Shekinah which shone 
through the veil of Moses, now shines unveiled 
into the hearts of believers, giving them the 
“ light of the knowledge of God in the face of 
Christ Jesus.’ 

The conscious testimony of the Holy Spirit is 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


115 


the only satisfactory evidence of faith in Christ.* 
The external evidence of the truth of Christi- 
anity may convince the intelligence of some men 
that the system has historical validity. The use 
of such evidence is proper in its place ; and in 
the hands of those who understand its place and 
its comparative value it may be used with profit 
to others. But some have written on the evi- 
dences of Christianity that knew nothing them- 
selves of the higher testimony. And many have 
believed the history of u God manifest in the 
flesh,” who never possessed the inward testi- 
mony produced by the “ faith which works by 
love and purifies the heart.”! Such men may 
discuss, with much learning and intellectual acu- 
men, the dogma of theological systems : but it 
is written (1 Cor. xii, 3), and will be true for 
ever, that “ no man can say Je^us is the Christ 
but by the Holy Ghost.” 

* See Appendix G. — Bishop Taylor’s Tfstimony. 

f The Spirit was not promised to testify of the canon of the 
Old Testament, or the Hagiography, or histories of Old Testa- 
ment times. It testifies of the Old Testament system as intro- 
ductory, and hence immature both in precept apd example. Its 
promised “ conviction of sin ” is in view of Christ, and it “ takes 
of the things that belong to Christ and shows *hem to the 
believer,” and to the believer only. 


116 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


This view of the place and comparative value 
of miraculous and spiritual testimony is recog- 
nized by the Saviour. Before the advent of the 
Spirit, and while Jesus was yet with them, He 
urged His disciples, and likewise the Jews, to 
believe that the Father was in Him, and He 
in the Father, for the works’ sake which He 
did. Before the day of Pentecost, miracles were 
the best evidence that men had of the divinity 
of Christ. And down to this day, with unre- 
generate minds, and Christians in the Old Tes- 
tament or John Baptist state, miracles are still 
the best testimony which such possess. But at 
the same time that Christ appealed to His mir- 
acles as evidence of His commission from Heaven, 
He promised to His disciples more satisfactory 
testimony — a testimony which the world did not 
and could not receive. John xiv, 11 — 26, — 
“ He that loveth me shall be loved of my 
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest my- 
self to him.” “At that day ye shall know that 
I am in the Father , and ye in me, and I in you.” 

§ 41. — The nature of the Spirit’s witness . 

The visitations of the Spirit are with the inner 
life of the soul. They beget a sense of sonship 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


117 


in the believing mind. The renewed man is 
willing to obey and be treated as a servant, but 
he is received and endowed with the spirit and 
privileges of a son. In regeneration the mind 
passes, as the Church has done, through the 
legal into the spiritual dispensation. All the 
demands of conscience are obeyed better than 
before, but the impulse to will and to do is 
born in the heart. The Old Testament servant 
becomes a New Testament son. “ Our Father ” 
is the proper designation of God under the new 
dispensation. But it is a designation specially 
appropriate to those in whose minds the law of 
love is fulfilled. “ They that are led by the 
Spirit of G-od , they are the sons of God.” 
Hence Paul, in speaking of the obedience he 
once offered, and that which he then enjoyed, 
says (Rom. viii, 15, 16), “For we have not re- 
ceived the spirit of bondage again to fear; but 
we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby 
we cry, Abba, Father, — the Spirit itself bearing 
witness with our spirit, that we are the sons 
of God.” 

Of this condition of sonship, as of all other 
Christian graces and glories, Jesus Christ Him- 
self is the example and the type. From Him, 


118 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


by the Spirit, believers receive into their hearts 
the Christian virtues — “grace for grace.” Each 
lineament of His character is impressed upon 
them in proportion to their faith. So that the 
devout, tender, and submissive spirit manifested 
by Christ toward the Father, is reproduced in 
believers “ by the Spirit of Christ which dwell- 
eth in them.” Gal. iv, 6, — “ For God hath sent 
forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, 
crying, Abba, Father.” 


§ 42. — The influence of the Spirit upon the fac- 
ulties of the mind . separately considered. 

The Spirit of Christ does not work in contra- 
vention of the normal exercise of. the mental 
powers. On the contrary, it works in harmony 
with all the laws of mind. Its influence is to 
exhilarate and exercise the mental faculties joy- 
fully and energetically. The things which Christ 
had spoken were brought to the memory of the 
disciples, but this was done evidently according 
to the law of suggestion. The different evan- 
gelists in communicating the same truth connect 
it sometimes with one incident, and sometimes 
with another ; each recording the event as sug- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


119 


gested by the circumstance which most affected 
him, and each presenting it in language in keep- 
ing with his natural temperament, and with the 
degree of his mental culture.* One evangelist 
associates events topically, another logically, and 
another spiritually ; but still in all the memory 
furnishes the same truth, characterized by the 
diverse advantages and mental peculiarities of 
the writers. 

A spiritual mind is one awakened to life and 
interest in spiritual things. To the Christian 
preacher especially, this heart -interest in the gos- 
pel is an essential qualification. The affections, 
awakened by faith, will start the law of sug- 
gestion, and thus give parallel texts to the 
memory, and freshness of illustration to impress 

* When Bible orators speak of the excellence of Revelation, 
as consisting in the wonderful sublimity of language and won- 
derful excellence of precept found in the Old and New Test- 
ament, they no doubt ought to be commended for their well- 
meant efforts. But it is certain that literary style in any other 
sense than as a specimen of the usus loquendi of the age, was 
not designed to be an evidence of inspiration. If literary excel- 
lence was the criterion of judgment, it. would be difficult for 
well-informed Christians to undertake the proof of Divine inspi- 
ration. Even if the precepts of the Bible were its chief excel- 
lence the evidence would be different from what it really is. 
The example and precepts of Christ are perfect and ultimate, 


120 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


the thought. Every true minister understands 
and appreciates this fact, and every audience, 
without knowing why , feels it. As a man plead- 
ing for his child will find words, and be im- 
pressive in tone and gesture, so a believing mind 
will be aided, and will communicate of its animus 
to those who hear. 

Earnestnes, love, and other qualities of thought 
which characterize true gospel services, are mere 
affectations in some pulpits. Men are conscious 
of what their profession requires, and perhaps 
from a laudable but heartless sense of propriety 
assume the adapted manner. But such preachers 
do not “ speak as of the ability that God giveth, 
that God in all things may be glorified.”! They 
speak as of themselves ; and the false fire upon 

' Thou shalt love God with all thy heart and all thy might, 
and thy neighbor as thyself.” There can be nothing purer nor 
higher than this. Any thing else would be wrong. If God 
were to give another religion it would necessarily be a worse 
one, because it could not be better. But the power of the 
gospel is its glory. The strength imparted by the Spirit through 
the conscience and the heart to obey Christ as a personal 
Saviour, is its vital excellence. The disposition to do the good 
that we know is the great want of the soul. 7'his want is 
supplied by faith in Christ. This precept enlightens. The Spirit 
GIVES LIFE. 

f i Pet. iv, II. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT \ 


121 


the altar is a proper emblem of their service. 
“ Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
speaketh and when a true minister has care- 
fully and prayerfully prepared a discourse, for- 
getting himself and shaping it under the motive 
to do good, if the manuscript be not so closed 
as to prevent it, he will get from the impulse 
within him aids and suggestions which will 
greatly add to the impression of his teaching.* 

It may be that the mind that is naturally 
impulsive and sanguine, as it is, in itself, more 
liable to mistakes, is likewise, from its temper- 
ament, more susceptible of aid than others. Such 
were the minds of Peter, Luther, Whitfield and 
Finney. There are some men who are so care- 
ful lest they should do evil that they never do 
much good — so careful to avoid error that they 
fail to exhibit truth. Some prepare a sermon 
with the selfish thought in their minds, What 
effect will this presentation have upon ME in the 
estimation of the audience? Some close a manu- 
script in such form that there is no place for 
the Holy Spirit to put in a suggestion. Hence 
a fervent, sincere, believing mind will most fre- 

* See on this general subject the excellent book of W. 
Arthur, M.A., entitled “ The Tongue of Fire.” 


122 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


quently be aided ; and even the blunders to 
which it is liable will often be overruled for 
good, — for good, both to humble the speaker and 
to benefit the hearer. It is difficult, however, to 
discriminate between the line of selfish caution 
and sinful presumption. God alone, not man, is 
judge. 

The promise to the apostles that they would 
be aided without forethought related only to 
exigencies , and ought not to be claimed for the 
formal, routine preaching of our age. But, in 
every age, spiritual aid to prepare and to speak 
is, without doubt, granted to all evangelists who 
have a true faith, and who seek to accomplish 
the end for which the Holy Spirit gives strength 
to the soul : — the great end of all Christian 
effort, — to glorify God by doing good to men. 

But while the Spirit thus operates in accord- 
ance with the conformation of the mind, there 
are exceptional cases where abnormal conforma- 
tion interferes with symmetrical religious develop- 
ment. There are minds in which certain powers 
or susceptibilities are dwarfed or perverted. The 
susceptibility of hope, for instance, may be over- 
active or it may be almost wanting. In such 
cases, without a miracle, a full and perfect de- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


m 


velopment of religious life is not possible. A 
phlegmatic temperament will not be likely to 
express itself in sanguine appeals. Grace may 
compensate for want in one direction by strength 
in another, but it will not equalize the develop- 
ment. But notwithstanding these diversities, there 
are two qualities, or powers, to which faith will 
always give vitality and position. In all cases, 
however defective may be some of the intellec- 
tual powers, the conscience will be enthroned 
and the affections will receive new life ; and 
these moral powers, raised by faith to headship 
in the soul,* will determine the strength of the 
motive,! and give impulse to the will. Right- 
eousness and the love of God will be in the 
ascendant. There will be different phases of man- 
ifestation ; and fruits will be matured in different 
degrees of abundance, and of different qualities 
— still, in the life of every true Christian, con- 
science and love will rule ; and the fruits of the 
Spirit, borne on all the branches united to Christ, 
will be “ love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 

* See Chalmers’ Bridgewater Treatise on the Supremacy of 
Conscience. 

f The power of motive-truth depends upon the state of mind 
upon which it operates. 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


l'A\ 


ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” 
These the soul will taste in its own susceptibil- 
ity, and will thus be made to partake of the 
fruit of the “ Tree of Life, which groweth in 
the midst of the Paradise of God.” 


§ 43. — The duty of prayer annexed to the 
doctrine of the Spirit. 

The gift of the Spirit ©f Truth, as we have 
noticed, is the promise of the Father — the 
promise of Christ — the great promise of the 
New Testament Dispensation. The believer is 
not only invited to ask for this offered blessing, 
but he is apparently entreated by the Author 
of all Mercies to seek for that spiritual presence 
of Christ which is, in itself, an answer to all 
prayer. “Seek, and ye shall find;” “Ask, and 
it shall be given unto you.” We are taught 
that the Divine Father is more willing to give 
the Holy Spirit to His children who ask Him 
than earthly parents are to give good gifts to 
their offspring. And annexed to this promise 
there is the assurance that the blessing granted 
shall not be such as to mock the suppliant; 
but that it will be a satisfactory supply of his 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


125 


spiritual wants. “If a child ask bread, will a 
parent give him a stone?” something that will 
mock, but not satisfy his want? Even so, the 
Father in Heaven will grant a satisfying supply 
for the spiritual wants of those who ask Him. 

Such is the plentitude of the promise to the 
children of God. And they are encouraged to 
seek spiritual blessings, not only for themselves, 
but in answer to their persevering supplication, 
blessings are promised to them, for others , and 
they are constituted the mediums through which 
spiritual mercies are communicated to those who 
have not tasted of the bread of life,* and for 
whom they make supplication. 

§ 44. — The condition upon which he influence of 
the Roly Spirit is granted . 

It is not every form o prayer that is answered 
by a blessing. It is (James v, 16) “ The effec- 
tual fervent prayer of the righteous man that 
availeth much.” Some things are required in 
the character of the suppliant, and some things 
in the quality of the prayer. The sum of these 
requirements, as to character, is tha the sup- 


* See Luke xi, 5 — 13. 


126 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


pliant should live up to his knowledge of duty. 
We must not refuse to use the light and strength 
which we possess while we pray for more light 
and aid from above. 

The golden rule is a deduction of the reason, 
as well as a precept of revelation.* We know 
by experience what we desire others should or 
should not do to us, hence we know what we 
ought to do to them. In Matthew vii, 11, 12, 
the Saviour’s promise of the Spirit is immediately 
conjoined with this rule of righteousness. He 
says, “ If ye, being evil, know how to give good 
gifts unto your children, how much more shall 
your Father which is in Heaven give good 
gifts to them that ask him ? ” “ Therefore, all 

things whatsoever ye would that men should do 
unto you, do ye even so unto them.” The 
Christian, therefore, who labors to practice this 
rule, comes acceptably to the Father for. the aid 
of the promised Spirit. 

The Apostle Paul gives the same truth and 
the same connection in another form of words 
(Phil, iii, 14, 15), — “ I press toward the mark 
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 

* Confucius announced this rule in words the import of which 
is precisely the same as that taught in the language of Jesus. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


127 


Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, 
be thus minded : and if in any thing ye be 
otherwise minded, God will reveal even this unto 
you.” That is, if in the discharge of Christian 
duty you use all the strength at present granted, 
God will aid you in regard to other things which 
you may desire. And this promise of increase, 
when the measure of ability is complied with, 
relates not only to duty but to doctrine. John 
vii, 17, — “ If any man will do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” 

The Apostle John gives the specific sense 
(1 John iii, 21, 22), — “Beloved, if our heart con- 
demn us not, then have we confidence toward 
God. And whatsoever we ask we receive of him , 
BECAUSE WE KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, AND DO 
THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE PLEASING IN HIS 
sight.” That is, in order to receive an answer 
to prayer for promised blessings, we must be 
living, so far as we have ability, in the discharge 
of all duties that we know are pleasing to God. 
It is mockery to pray, as some do, for guidance 
and strength, while they are not obedient so far 
as they have knowledge and ability. It is the 
same thing as refusing to use the ability granted 
us, while yet we ask for more. 


128 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


If the Scriptures make any thing plain, it is 
that good works , as of the ability that God giveth , 
are required in order that prayer may be answered. 
In the parable of Jesus, he who had the one 
talent committed to him was a servant who pro- 
fessed to fear and obey his master. He was 
not one of the rebellious citizens who hated 
their Lord and opposed His government. And 
while thus refusing to exercise his ability in the 
use of the talent committed to him, he not only 
failed of a present blessing by an increase of 
his talent arising from the use of it, but he se- 
cured for himself merited penalty. His soul was 
not slain as the rebellious citizen, but it was 
darkened, and possessed with regretful exercises.* 

* See Luke xix, 11-27. — A penalty is affixed to the non-use 
of our faculties and abilities, both in nature and grace. The 
man who, like the Fakir in India, refuses to use his arm, will 
lose ability to use it. The man who refuses to use his moral 
faculties in the service of God, will lose moral strength in the 
faculty which is not exercised. All our faculties gain strength 
by exercise, and lose strength by non-use. The unprofitable 
servant in the parable professed to know the character, and 
to fear the frown, of his master. He knew his master had 
power to do as he pleased, and did not need his service ; and 
seeing he was so sovereign , he did not himself know what to 
do with the talent intrusted to him. So he kept it very care- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT \ 


129 


Suppose that God should grant the Holy Spirit 
in answer to prayer, without the condition that 
the servant should use the ability already pos- 
sessed ; the answer would, in such case, mislead 
the suppliant and tend to licentiousness. The 
fact that God had given peace and love where 
there was pride and prejudice and disobedience 
(if such a thing were possible — which it is 
not), would lead the suppliant to believe that 
God was pleased with him while he possessed 
a wrong state of heart, and was not letting the 
light he already possessed shine, according to 
the commandment. Thus man would be deceived 
and injured, and God would be dishonored. 
The best Christians sometimes feel the weakness 

fully (had very careful habits, and did not abuse his moral 
powers in any way), and returned it in good condition to him 
who gave it. Such a professed servant of Christ, we are taught, 
will hereafter be cast out into moral darkness, where he will 
be filled with compunction in view of his indolence and folly. 
The enemies of Christ who refuse to have Him reign over 
them, are brought out and slain before Him. The unprofitable 
servant suffers loss, exclusion, and remorse. The rebels are de- 
stroyed. . " 

Let unprofitable servants, whose names are legion, notice the 
specific difference between the reward of the profitable servant, 
the doom of the unprofitable, and the destruction of the rebel- 
lious citizen. 


9 


130 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


of their strength and of their faith, but they 
know the will of God and can obey with a 
prayerful, dependent, and persevering spirit ; and 
while doing the work of a servant, if they do 
it for Christ’s sake, God will recognize them as 
sons. When comparing themselves with Christ, 
all Christians will see imperfection in their obe- 
dience — but they will be conscious of an obedi- 
ent spirit, and trust in Christ’s mercy, and this 
is the true Christian consciousness in light or 
darkness. 

To the young convert whose heart is purified, 
and whose knowledge is yet limited, the privi- 
lege of the newly born may be given. The 
Good Shepherd may take the lamb in His arms, 
and bear it for a time in His bosom; but He 
will set it down in order that it may gain 
strength by exercise. So the young Christian 
must learn to talk, and walk, and work. He 
may lean on Christ’s strength, but he must exer- 
cise his faculties in active service ; and refusing 
to do this he will fail in fruitfulness, and fail 
of the favor of God in answer to prayer. 

The requirement of reason and of Scripture, 
in regard to the instructed Christian in order to 
communion with God, is that he should live so 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


131 


that his conscience does not condemn him for 
neglecting known duty. 1 John iii, 19-22, — 
“Hereby we know that we are of the truth, 
and shall assure our hearts before him. For if 
our conscience condemn us, God is greater than 
our conscience, and knoweth all things. Beloved, 
if our conscience condemn us not, then have we 
confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ash, 
we receive of him , because we keep his com- 
mandments, AND DO THE THINGS THAT ARE 
pleasing in his sight.” This is explicit. No 
one but the formal worshiper can fail to under- 
stand. 


§ 45. — Availing prayer is offered to God in the 
name of Christ. 

The Redeemer, in His last words with His 
disciples, speaking of His departure from them, 
and the new views which would be attained, 
and the new duties which would supervene after 
His ascension, says (John xvi, 23, 24), “ In that 
day [after I shall have fully revealed the Father 
and ascended to his bosom] ye shall ask me 
nothing. Yerily, verily, I say unto you, What- 
soever ye shall ask the Father in my name , he 


132 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


will give it you. Hitherto ye have asked noth- 
ing in my name : ask, and receive, that your 
joy may be full.” 

When we ask for spiritual blessings, viewing 
the Father’s character as revealed in Christ, 
“the Father is glorified in the Son.” This is 
the import of this and other parallel passages.* 
To ask the Father in the name of Christ, is to 
ask Him in the character which the work of 
Christ has given Him. He is thus glorified in 
the name, or in the character, which He has 
revealed in Christ. If God’s character were not 
viewed through Christ, we would not be regard- 
ing His moral excellences and His relations to 
ourselves as they really exist under the New 
Testament dispensation. God is as good as the 
sacrifice of Christ reveals Him to be. To know 
Him, therefore, as He is, to worship in the 
light of His true character, we must ask in the 
name of Jesus; that is, adoring the Divine 
Being as revealed in the Mediator. 

Before the crucifixion and the advent of the 
Spirit the disciples had made supplication in 
the name of Jehovah — the name by which the 
attributes of God were imperfectly revealed in 

* See Philosophy of Plan of Salvation, chap. xvii. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


133 


the Old Testament dispensation ; but when the 
Spirit led them to see the Father in Christ, 
then, and not till then, Christ’s name was asso- 
ciated in all their addresses to the Supreme Be- 
ing.* Heb. xiii, 20, 21, — “ Now the God of peace, 
that brought again from the dead our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, 
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 
make you perfect in every good work to do his 
will, working in you that which is well pleasing 
in his sight, through Jesus Christ ; to whom be 
glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 

§ 46 . — The sum of preceding sections . 

The sum of preceding thoughts on this subject 
is, that prayer for the blessing of the Spirit, 

* A true faith in Christ implies both the impulse of love 
and the guidance of truth. Many have faith in Christ as a 
Saviour, who misapprehend, or are ignorant of His will in regard 
to duty. They pray not in submission, but for strength to do 
what is contrary to the will of God. They have zeal without 
knowledge. To hear their prayer would be to grant them 
strength to misdirect their efforts. Their prayer may be an- 
swered ; but not in the manner they desire. But those who 
“ abide in Christ by faith , and in whom his words abide as 
guidance, may ask what they will, and it shall be done unto 
them I — John xv, 7. 



134 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


when we are not living up to our light, nor 
making an effort to do ‘ so, is mockery. Suppli- 
cation for the Spirit’s guidance, when we are at 
the same time unwilling to be made the humble, 
obedient, self-denying Christians which we know 
the Spirit would make us, is hypocrisy. But to 
those who receive the words of Christ and are 
obedient to them in heart — to such as endeavor, 
according to their ability, to exemplify the Spirit 
and follow the example of the Great Teacher, 
the Comforter is promised, and the promise will 
never fail while the truth and mercy of God 
endure. 

And when the Comforter comes, He not only 
brings a blessing to the soul of the suppliant, 
but He endues him with a blessing for the sub- 
jects of his prayers. Not that impenitent men 
will be converted when the believer makes per- 
sistent supplication for them ; but, if they have 
not sinned beyond recovery, the Divine Spirit 
will visit those for whom such supplication is 
offered, and by some fact of providence, or of 
revelation, such minds will be impressed and 
invited to consider subjects connected with their 
spiritual condition here and their spiritual well- 
being hereafter. 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


135 


Thus the company of obedient Christians are 
made “ partakers of the Divine nature,” and be- 
come the living mediums by which the mercy of 
Heaven is conveyed through the earth. They 
are appointed “ a holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, through 
Jesus Christ.” Under the Old Testament, the 
company of priests made intercession, “ with sac- 
rifice, day by day, which could not make them 
which did the service perfect as pertaining to 
the conscience.” Under the new and perfect 
dispensation, every believer is appointed an in- 
tercessor. For them the sacrifice of Christ is 
always offered — “ offered once for all by the Eter- 
nal Spirit .” Whoever believes and obeys Christ 
receives the Spirit ; his work for the good of 
men will then be availing, and his prayers will 
be answered, — for he is constituted “a king and 
priest unto God, and he shall reign in the new 
heavens and new earth, in which dwelleth right- 
eousness.”* 

* Rev. v, io. See Appendix H, — Connection between 
Truth, Providence, and Prayer. 


136 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


CHAPTER VII. 


THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WITH THE MINDS 
OF THE IMPENITENT. 

The Holy Spirit being given to believers, as 
in the preceding chapter, and they exercising 
themselves as laborers and intercessors for the 
sinful and the needy, then the Divine influence 
will follow their thought, or will otherwise reach 
the minds of those for whom they make sup- 
plication ; and such minds will (unless unusual 
obstacles prevent) be led to think of God, of 
sin, and of duty. Wherever there is effort and 
prayer for the glory of God in the good of 
men, such supplication and effort produce effect 
in some direction, and upon some person or per- 
sons ; usually, as we have said, upon those for 
whom the supplication is offered. Such persons 
may not always be converted ; they may resist 
unto death. It may not be known to others 
that their minds are exercised at all upon the 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


137 


subject of their sinfulness ; they may not know 
it themselves. Their thought will seem to them 
natural; and they will attribute it to no unusual 
cause. The Spirit works in harmony with the 
laws of mind. Yet all this does not militate 
against the fact that the prayer of the obedient 
believer does produce results. When spiritual 
power is in the soul of the suppliant, and his 
prayer is perse veringly offered for the glory of 
God, it is as certainly efficient as any of the 
forces of nature. Prayer is probably one of the 
moral forces of the spiritual world.* 

The result of prayer may sometimes be judg- 
ment mingled with mercies. The spiritual good 
may begin in some affliction or temporal calamity 
falling upon a person or a family ; some prov- 
idence needful to produce reflection, or to abate 
the power of the prince of this world over the 
soul; but however it begins or advances, where 
the true Church prays, the Spirit does a work 
of judgment and mercy, by providence and by 
truth. The believer will be strengthened, the 
impenitent awakened, and God will be glorified. 
If those who are, in such circumstances, en- 
lightened by truth, and “ made partakers of the 


See Appendix I, — Is Prayer a Moral Force? 


138 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


heavenly gift,” yield their hearts and lives to 
Christ, they will become sons of God, and will 
receive the guidance through life of the Pastor 
and Bishop of the soul. But if, being enlight- 
ened, they wickedly resist, occurrences will take 
place in the seeming natural course of events 
which will induce scepticism, or in some other 
way render it more difficult for them ever after 
to become reconciled to God.* 

§ 47. — Specific work of the Spirit in impenitent 
minds. 

We come now to notice the work of the 
Holy Spirit upon the unrenewed mind. The fol- 
lowing is the succinct scriptural statement. 

John xvi, 8-11, — “When the Comforter is 
come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment : Of sin, because 
they believe not on me ; Of righteousness, be- 
cause I go to the Father and ye see me no 
more ; Of judgment because the prince of this 
world is judged.” • 

The teaching of this passage, it will be seen, 
is in precise accordance with what has been 

* Heb. vi, 4 — . 




THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


189 


shown elsewhere to be the only process by which 
man can advance from lower to higher degrees 
of moral culture and moral character. In order 
to unity, we will, in this place, recapitulate 
briefly the statement of those mental necessities* 
which are met by the Spirit and the truth, as 
set forth in the above passage. 

(1.) “He will convict the world of sin.” 

It has been shown that there must be a sense 
of man’s guilt and danger existing in the mind 
before there can be gratitude and love to the 
being who removes the guilt and rescues from 
the danger. It has likewise been shown that 
conviction of sin is a necessary prerequisite to 
repentance. A man can not conscientiously turn 
from evil until he sees and feels that it is evil. 
To suppose that any one will for unselfish rea- 
sons turn from a course of life which he does 
not first feel to be wrong, is to suppose an 
absurdity. Hence the necessity of the Spirit’s 

* To the thoughtful there is the highest evidence of the 
divinity of the New Testament, seen in the harmony of its 
principles and methods with the laws and necessities of the 
human mind. 


140 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


first impression, as stated in the words of Christ, 
“ He will convict the world of sin.” 

But the same truth would not be adapted to 
convince all classes of men that they were sin- 
ners. Some men are least guilty of sins which 
are the greatest in the case of others. In order, 
therefore, to convince any particular class of men 
of their sinfulness, those facts must be alleged 
which are adapted to awaken in the soul a 
sense of personal guilt. In the days of the 
apostles the Gentiles could not be convicted of 
sin for rejecting and crucifying Christ ; but in 
the case of the Jews, their views in regard to 
the Messiah were such, that nothing in the 
whole catalogue of crime would be adapted to 
convict them of sin so deeply as the thought 
that Jesus, whom they had crucified, was the 
Messiah. 

On the contrary, the heathen, upon whom there 
was no guilt in regard to the rejection of Christ, 
would be convicted of sin by such revelations 
of the holiness of God, and the obligation of 
the moral law, as would condemn their idolatries, 
impurities and crimes. But in all cases, it was 
truth as taught by Christ, and judgment as ad- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


141 


ministered by Christ,* which the apostles pre- 
sented in order to convince the world of sin. 

We need not cite instances to show that this 
was the general order of apostolic proceeding. 
That quality of truth was used which was adapt- 
ed to the circumstances and moral attainment of 
those whom they addressed. The Jews were 
charged with sin in rejecting Christ. The Gen- 
tiles were instructed concerning the true God, 
the true duty, and the folly and sin of their 
idolatries ; while every where Christ crucified 
was presented to the penitent sinner as the ob- 
ject of faith, the source of pardon, and the 
hope of glory. 

(2.) “ He shall convince the world of right- 
eousness, because I go to the Father, and ye 
see me no more.” 

But it requires something more than truth ; 
something more even than acknowledged and 
adapted truth, to make men feel that they are 
sinners in the sight of G-od. The Maker, as we 
have noticed, has so constituted the conscience 
that it will enforce no truth upon the will unless 


* Acts xvii, 31. 


142 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


there is a sense of God’s authority in it. Jesus 
Himself taught that His truth would not have 
full spiritual efficacy until after His resurrection. 
By His resurrection and the advent of the Spirit, 
as we have shown, the evidence of Divine author- 
ity would be given to His teaching. Then it 
would be empowered to affect the moral nature 
of man ; to become light to the souls of the 
dark-minded, and life in the souls of those who 
believe. Hence the second impression of the 
Spirit by the truth, — 44 He shall convince the 
world of righteousness, because I go to the 
Father, and ye see me no more.” 

Commentators have blundered even more in 
regard to the import of this passage than they 
usually do in regard to the spiritual import of 
John’s gospel. There is no doubt but that it 
was designed to give the simple rationale of the 
process by which the authority of God was 
attached to the life and death of Christ. When 
Christ was raised from the dead and taken to 
heaven, then the Divine sanction was affixed to 
His character and instruction, which henceforth 
became the standard of righteousness. When, 
under the preaching of the apostles, impressed 
by the Holy Spirit, men came to believe in the 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


143 


ascension of Christ, as Saviour and Judge of 
men — then the righteousness of Christ became 
to them the righteousness that God required, 
and wanting which they would feel condemned 
as sinners against God. Hence, men were con- 
vinced of righteousness because God established 
Christ’s rule of righteousness by the resurrection 
from the dead.* 

(3.) “He shall convict the world of judgment, 
because the prince of this world is judged.” 

Another co-existing conviction promised by the 
Spirit through the truth was that o*f judgment 
or condemnation of the selfish forms and de- 
ceptions of a worldly life. Men would see, as 
soon as they believed that Christ’s life was the 
life that God approved — that the prevailing 
spirit of the world was condemned by His loving 
and self-denying example. The selfishness which 
dictated the factitious manners, and the low and 
base aims of worldly minds, would be revealed 
and condemned by the standard of living and 
the motive of action which Christ had estab- 
lished. This the apostles understood; they taught 

* See Appendix L, — Old and New Testament Morality. 


144 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


that the gospel both revealed sin and condemned 
it. It led men both to see and to feel the 
evil of the world. Eph. v, 13, — “ All things that 
are reproved are made manifest by the light: for 
whatsoever doth make manifest is light” * In the 
light of the gospel the evil was seen, and by 
the impression of the Spirit the evil was felt. 
Thus, in the minds of the sanctified, the ruling 
spirit of the world was condemned, “ the prince 
of this world was judged.” 

* About the time that Paul wrote the passage from which 
this quotation is taken, describing the moral corruption which 
prevailed in the city of Ephesus, Pliny, one of the wisest and 
most refined men of his age, speaks of the same city as “one 
of the luminaries of Asia.” The one considered her as full of 
light, the other looked upon her as full of darkness. Both 
views were true, according to the standard by which the writers 
formed their judgment. Pliny saw her as the seat of the highest 
civilization that a people without revelation had attained. But 
in Paul’s mind their impure and immoral deeds were made 
manifest,— the false external of this world was judged. Under- 
neath the glare of vainglory he saw moral corruption. She was 
“ a whited sepulchre, full of dead men’s bones.” The descrip- 
tion, we fear, is not inapplicable in a moral sense to Paris, 
New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and some other cities both 
of the old and the new world. If an angel were to visit the 
resorts of fashion and wealth, he would frequently see, under 
the tinsel which opulence furnishes, the corrupt, sensuous, and 
selfish motives which render the soul a “ cage of unclean birds.” 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


145 


§ 48. — The promised convictions of the Spirit ex- 
perienced by those who hear the gospel under 
spiritual impression . 

It has been, in every age since the gospel was 
first proclaimed, verified in the experience of 
tens of thousands, that the subjective effects 
which Christ promised by His Spirit have been 
produced. Setting aside instances of sympathetic 
emotion, which do not arise from a sense of 
heart-guiltiness, and looking charitably upon other 
movements which may have been produced by 
sectarian rather than sacred zeal ; apart from all 
such cases, there are multitudes of persons that 
have felt the convicting power of truth, when 
that truth has been presented in the presence 
of Christians whose minds were exercised by 
faith and prayer. Many have in such circum- 
stances been awakened to see the evil of sin, 
and to realize the claims of God upon them, 
with a degree of interest that they never felt 
before.* The three co-existing impressions — sin, 

* The writer has seen in two instances respectable business 
men, from New York city, rise, exercised by a deep sense of 
sin, to ask the prayers of a congregation in a distant town, 
after hearing a single sermon, where they knew no one present, 
10 


146 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


righteousness, and judgment, — promised as the 
work of the Spirit through the truth, have been 
produced in their minds. If we converse with 
friends who are spiritually interested in religious 
truth, in some respects we may find their exer- 
cises different. Some do not feel that in any 
one particular they have been great transgressors. 
Many are troubled that they do not feel more 
the guilt of their sins. But notwithstanding di- 
versity of views in regard to their own difficul- 
ties and deserts, there is always the same con- 
sciousness of the three-fold impression , — sin, right- 
eousness, JUDGMENT. 

Ask any one of them if they feel that their 
heart is hard and sinful ? Oh yes, they will say, 
they see that, but they do not feel it as they 
ought. Ask them if they have seen their 
thoughts to be selfish and evil in the sight of 
God ? Oh yes, they have seen that ; and have 
tried to control their thoughts, and make them- 
selves better, but have failed. They know, they 
will often tell you, that their heart is in a 
wrong state, and that they do not feel willing 

and no one knew them until subsequent inquiry. No word 
was said and no prayer uttered except the ordinary service of 
the Sabbath. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


147 


to do the will of Christ. By such statements 
concerning their exercises it will be apparent to 
enlightened minds, although it may not be to 
themselves, that they are convinced of sin; some 
more deeply than others ; but still the conscious- 
ness, in kind, is the same. They see the evil 
of sin, and feel it to some extent. The “I” of 
the mind, which sees the thought, is convicted, 
and is opposing selfish exercises and wrong pro- 
pensities. Like Paul, in the Pharisee state, such 
persons “ consent unto the law that it is good ; 
but when they would do good, evil is present 
with them.” 

The second impression also, a sense of right- 
eousness, is found in their mind. It is the per- 
ception “ that the law is good” that enables 
them to feel the evil of their heart. They con- 
sent to the law, and yet find in themselves a 
want of conformity to it. They have begun to 
read the Scriptures and to study righteousness 
as it is revealed there ; and they approve it. 
They may have had speculative ideas of sin be- 
fore, and compunction for wrong doing towards 
others ; this, all persons who possess a natural 
conscience, will sometimes experience. But now 
they feel — as did David — that they have “ sin- 


148 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


ned against Grod , and done the evil in His 
sight.”* Their conscience accuses them of in- 
gratitude and disobedience toward their Divine 
Benefactor. The truth of Scripture has now for 
them a sense of God in it; and in its light 
they judge of their past life and their present 
duty. 

And, finally, an awakened mind feels, in a 
sense difficult to express, that the forms and 
professions of the world are hollow and selfish. 
And at this point the issue between Christ and 
Belial for ascendancy in the soul is usually made. 
The ties of companionship and the power of 
worldly habits and associations are strong — so 
strong, that many who see the danger, and de- 
sire a better life, have not sufficient of principle 
and purpose to emancipate themselves from a 
service which their awakened conscience con- 
demns. Some look up, and under the impulse 
of the Spirit, struggle to enter in at the strait 
gate ; while others, of more feeble purpose and 
less moral principle, “desire — seek to enter in, 
hut are not able.” 

Thus the three-fold conviction of the Spirit 
is distinct, notwithstanding the varied exercises 

* Ps. li, 4. 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


149 


caused by different temperaments, histories, de- 
grees of knowledge and degrees of sin. In the 
case of all adult persons who have lived a selfish 
life antecedent to conversion, there will be found 
in their minds the three co-existing impressions 
— sin, righteousness, judgment — in the sense 
above described. 


§ 49 . — The awakening of the lost sinner , and his 
return to Grod, as illustrated by the Lord Jesus . 

The parable of the prodigal son is a beautiful, 
affectionate, and striking illustration of the con- 
victed consciousness, and the state of mind in 
which a lost sinner returns to God. That the 
parallel may be more distinct, we will present 
the figure and its fact in opposite columns. 


The prodigal takes his por- 
tion of goods and leaves home 
to follow his own will and seek 
his own happiness in a far-off 
country. 


The wandering son, having 
wasted his substance, is sent to 
feed swine, and is willing to 
live on swines’ food. 


So the son of the Divine 
Father takes the talents com- 
mitted to him, and, if not a be- 
liever, at the age of responsi- 
bility he departs and seeks his 
own will and his happiness in 
the world. 

The wandering sinner, having 
wasted his energies in sensual 
and selfish schemes, seeks to 
satisfy his soul with earthly and 
animal good. 


150 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


No man gave the prodigal, 
even of the husks he desired. 
He found no satisfying good 
in any earthly source ; husks 
would not satisfy the appetite. 


Finally, through the effect 
of his experience, and by re- 
flection upon his destitute con- 
dition, the prodigal “ comes to 
himself,” begins to reflect — to 
realize the danger and want of 
his present state. He thinks 
of his father, and of the sup- 
plies and peace in his distant 
home. 

The prodigal, after serious 
thought, says to himself, I will 
arise — go home, and confess 
myself a sinner in the sight 
of God and my father, and 
say that I am unworthy to be 
called a son. 

The prodigal, in view of his 
past sin and his un worthiness, 
is willing to return and labor 
and be treated as a hired serv- 
ant, feeling that his father 
will do right if he obeys his 


So the sinner tries but fails 
to make himself happy. He 
turns from one man to another, 
and from one thing to another, 
but nothing temporal will satis- 
fy spiritual wants. It is as 
husks to the appetite. 

So the sinner “ comes to 
himself.” He becomes conscious 
of his present unsatisfied and 
sinful condition. He thinks of 
his heavenly Father, and begins 
seriously to meditate upon his 
spiritual wants, and the supplies 
offered in the gospel. 


So the sinner purposes to 
arise and return to the home 
of the soul. He feels that he 
has sinned against heaven and 
in the sight of God, and that 
he is unworthy to be called a 
a son, and often in heart- 
prayer confesses his sin 

So the awakened sinner, 
after purposing to arise and go 
to his Father, finally does arise 
and goes towards home. He 
goes feeling he is unworthy, 
and asking to be made as a 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


151 


will. Thus lie returns to obey 
without making any conditions. 


The father sees the prodi- 
gal coming at a great distance, 
and goes out to meet him. 
The distance is at first great, 
so that they are some time 
approaching each other ; but 
they meet, and the father re- 
ceives the penitent as a son 
that “ was lost but is found.” 

There was rejoicing in the 
presence of the father, and 
among the other servants, when 
the prodigal returned. His 
soiled garments were exchang- 
ed for clean robes, and a 
feast of social enjoyment was 
held to celebrate his arrival at 
home. 


The reason why the father 
of the prodigal rejoiced was, 
that his “ son who was dead 
is alive again ; he was lost 
but is found.” 


hired servant — not demanding 
the joy and privileges of a son, 
but willing to obey as a humble 
penitent, and trust his Father 
without conditions. 

So God sees the sinner at a 
great distance when he first 
begins to think of his sin and 
his duty. He goes out to meet 
him by His providence and His 
Spirit. And he who is return- 
ing, willing to obey as a ser- 
vant, is met and received as a 
son. 

So when the penitent sinner 
returns, “ There is joy in the 
presence of the angels of God.” 
The servants of the Divine 
Master on earth likewise re- 
joice. There is social joy in 
the Church : and the heart of 
the wanderer is now purified 
by faith that works by love, 
and he puts on the garments 
of righteousness. 

So there is joy in heaven — 
because a soul dead in sin 
lives now to God ; a soul lost 
to happiness and usefulness, 
lives to glorify God and benefit 


men. 


152 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


Thus has the great promise of the Redeemer 
been verified — in the history of the Church, 
in the experience of men, and in harmony with 
the specific illustrations of the Great Teacher 
himself. From the day of Pentecost to the 

present hour, that promise has been fulfilled in 
the sanctification of saints, and in the convic- 
tion and conversion of sinners ; and the work 

will go on increasing in prevalence, purity, and 
power, until the end of the dispensation. Men 
may hate the truth and reject the witness, but 
still “ the counsel of God stands sure ; ” and 
wherever the truth is preached, men’s destiny 

for mercy or for judgment is connected with 
the disposition they manifest towards Christ, who 
comes to them in the influence of the Divine 
Spirit. 1 John v. 10, — “ He that believe th on 
the Son hath the witness in himself : he that 
believeth not God, hath made him a liar : because 
he believeth not the record that God gave of 
his Son.” 


§ 50. — The son's life at home. 

A sense of his lost condition and faith in his 
father’s mercy brought the wanderer home. 
When he has returned, faith and obedience are 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


153 


the impulse and the law of a happy home life. 
But some Christians err by supposing that the 
life of faith is a constant flow of joyful emotion. 
Sometimes joy is sought with a selfish motive, 
which opens the mind to deception, or which 
hinders the peace granted upon unconditional 
submission to the will of God. Men are so con- 
stituted that strong emotion can not be lasting; 
reaction must follow. “ Peace ” * is the promise 
of the Saviour , and to the Christian a perma- 
nent peace, hallowed by love, may be enjoyed. 
This is the believer’s privilege in circumstances 
where there can be no peace to those unrecon- 
ciled to God. The things of the world with him 
are subservient to higher interests, and whether 
circumstances be propitious or adverse, he is still 
grateful, because he believes that “ all things 
work together for good to those who love God.” 

The eldest son in the parable had always been 
at home — had obeyed from his youth ; and 
although it is affirmed that all that the father 
had was his, yet he could not experience the 
extreme joy of the returned prodigal, because 
the sudden change from death to life was no 

* John xiv, 27 — “ Peace I leave with you, my peace I give 
unto you.” 


154 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


part of his experience. Yet he had the father’s 
favor, and he was the father’s heir. So those 
who from childhood obey God. 

But the prodigal son returns to obey the will 
of his father. The will of God, and not his 
own will is the law of life with the believer. 
But while the law is obeyed as a rule of duty, 
that law is likewise an expression of the will 
and heart of his Divine Benefactor. Christian 
life is not therefore, the service of duty under 
the impulse of conscience alone ; the impulse of 
love is united with the element of conscience. 
Thus love to men, as the object of effort, and 
love to Christ, as the author of effort, distin- 
guish the son from the servant in the life of 
faith. 

But still the will of Christ is supreme law 
with the believer. He passes from the technical 
righteousness of the formalist, and the impu- 
ted righteousness of the dogmatist, to the actual 
righteousness, of the obedient in heart. He can 
not do any thing deliberately that he knows 
Christ will disapprove. At home and abroad, in 
private and in public, a true Christian will do 
right — right in testimony and right in action. 
Righteousness is not a technical but a cardinal 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


155 


principle of the gospel. John Huss, John Knox, 
John Bunyan, Jeremy Taylor, William Penn, the 
Wesleys, would neither one of them have vio- 
lated his conscience for the gift of a kingdom. 
Christ’s righteousness made them righteous, not 
only in name but in fact. 

In all things the Christian has faith in God. 
He believes God hears prayer. He sees the 
divine hand in all the providences that come to 
pass, small and great. He knows this is a state 
of probation, and that in a world of imperfec- 
tion, where the good and the evil are mingled, 
the same external providence often befalls both 
classes. But he is sure nothing will befall him 
without some wise design, either to discipline 
him for some evil or to remove from him some 
temptation ; and he relies with perfect assurance 
on the promise that “ all things work together 
for good to those who love God, to those who 
are the called according to his purpose.” The 
believer’s faith transmutes adverse providences 
into spiritual good. The providence that renders 
the unreconciled more selfish, sanctifies the be- 
lieving mind. Thus the truth he believes, the 
discipline he receives, and the duties he dis- 
charges, all combine to fit the Christian for the 


156 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


“ inheritance of the saints in light.” And when 
the end comes, his sense of immortality is pro- 
duced by the presence of the Holy Spirit in his 
soul, and his hope of heaven is not by reason, 
but by faith in Christ, from whom he consciously 
draws eternal life, as the branch lives by its 
union with the vine. Having “fought the good 
fight and finished his course,” he departs to re- 
ceive the “ crown of life, which God, thp right- 
eous Judge, will give him at that day, and not 
to him only, but to all them also that love his 
appearing.” 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


157 


CHAPTER VIII. 

SUPPLEMENTARY. 

In the preceding sections on prayer and the 
Holy Spirit, the exposition does not include all 
the relations of the subject, and miraculous gifts 
by the Spirit are not noticed. We here sup- 
plement the preceding thoughts by additional 
sections. The whole, we hope, may form a 
Scriptural Monograph on the Doctrine of the 
Holy Spirit — a subject which should be held as 
of vital religious interest by all believers in the 
New Dispensation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. 

§ 58 . — The promise of the Holy Spirit in answer 
to prayer , is in harmony with the method of 
the gospel , that grace is bestowed upon one in 
order that benefit may be conferred upon others. 

Jesus prayed frequently, importunately and 
submissively ; and He promised His disciples 


158 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


that, if they obeyed His commandments , whatso- 
ever they asked of the Father, regarding Him 
in the name or character manifested in Christ, 
would be done for them. They were invited to 
ask in order that their joy might be full, and 
in order that they might be qualified to com- 
municate to others the blessing they had re- 

ceived. 

'The special promise of the New Testament on 
the subject of prayer is, that prayer for the 
Holy Spirit will be answered when the believer 
prays for grace to enable him to benefit others , as 
stated in the passage given in Luke xi. The 
point and intent of the passage, as stated and 

illustrated by Jesus,* is not that those who pray 
for the Holy Spirit shall receive it for their own 

* “And he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend, 
and shall go unto him at midnight, and shall say unto him — 
Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine, in his 

journey, has come to me, and I have nothing to set before 

him. And he from within shall answer and say, — Trouble me 
not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in 
bed ; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he 
will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because 
of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he 
needeth. And so I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given 
you ” for your friends . — Luke xi, 1-14. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


159 


spiritual good. This is true in a relative sense. 
As food taken to give us bodily strength is the 
order of nature to qualify us for work, so the 
Spirit gives spiritual strength. But the aim of 
the benediction is not ultimate with the recipi- 
ent. The same end for which Christ died is 
the aim of the endowment — to bless one in 
answer to prayer, that he may be the instru- 
ment of conveying the same blessing to others. 

If Christ has a kingdom in this world to be 
established under God by human agency, then 
providence and power would be given to accom- 
plish the aim of that kingdom, which is that 
members of the human brotherhood should be 
instrumental in saving each other. Thus the 
analogy of faith sanctions a true exposition. 

Now the above construction, which is the 
scriptural one, brings prayer into accordance with 
the plan and process of gospel duty, as devel- 
oped in preceding sections. Christians who desire 
to follow Christ in labor for human good should 
understand what expositors have failed to notice 
— that the unreserved promise of the Holy Spirit 
in the gospel is predicated upon the fact that 
the suppliant seeks grace for himself that he may 
impart good to others . The illustration by the 


160 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


Saviour precedes the promise recorded in the 
same passage. The promise is the same in Matt, 
vii, 6-12, where the parable is omitted. The 
Spiritual import of the passage is plain and im- 
pressive. Jesus gives the bread of life, as it is 
written, “ he that eateth of this bread shall 
never die.” The suppliant is deeply interested 
for his friend, but cannot himself furnish the 
means of life to the wayfarer on his journey to 
the judgment. The Saviour is the friend of the 
suppliant, who goes to Him and seeks importu- 
nately for the needed loaves, which he receives 
in order to convey them to the one for whom 
he intercedes. 

Harmonists generally have supposed that the 
promise in Matt, vii, and Luke xi, was spoken 
on different occasions. There is no reason what- 
ever for this division of the text. Besides, if 
thus divided, the full record elucidates the abbre- 
viated one. If Dr. Robinson had urged one-half 
the reasons to show that the passages are one 
that he has to show that the Sermon on the 
Mount is the same in the two evangelists, the 
first case would have been more evident than 
the second. Luke evidently designed to give the 
whole passage concerning prayer, and to sepa- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


161 


rate it from its contexts in time and place. In 
the order of the passage likewise the gospel 
economy requires that the illustration by the 
parable in Luke should come between the Lord’s 
prayer and the promise of the Holy Spirit. The 
Lord’s prayer is preliminary to duty. It is morn- 
ing worship and supplication for daily strength, 
pardon and guidance : (a) Let the Divine name 

— [character — as revealed in Christ] — be hal- 
lowed. (5) Let the Divine kingdom be estab- 
lished in the earth, (e) Give us our daily bread. 

(d) Forgive us our sins, when we forgive others. 

( e ) Save us when tempted. (/) Deliver from 
evil influence. — When their devotion had thus 
risen to the name of God in Christ, when His 
kingdom had been presented as the first inter- 
est, when they had prayed for daily strength 
and daily mercy, when they had sought the 
guidance of Providence and succor in tempta- 
tion — then, being thus qualified by personal de- 
votion for personal effort, the illustration in Luke 
intervenes, and the Holy Spirit is promised to 
aid the disciple, thus endowed, to communicate 
spiritual good personally to the friend for whom 
he prays. Then follows the promise with the 
connective joining the two passages : “ And I 


162 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


say unto you, ask and it shall be given you ” 
— for the subjects of your prayer, “ Seek ” — 
with the motive this man had — “ and ye shall 
find.” “ Knock ” — for the same purpose — “ and 
it shall be opened unto you.” “ For if ye being 
evil know how to give good gifts to your chil- 
dren, how much more will your Heavenly Father 
give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him.” 
Give it to bless them first with a satisfying 
portion, and thus qualify them as mediums to 
impart the same good to others. 

Thus the unconditional promise of the Spirit is 
conditional upon the believer asking for the bread 
of life that he may be the instrument of con- 
veying spiritual good to others. 


§ 54. — The subjects of prayer should be specifically 
in view of the mind of the suppliant , when he 
cannot personally communicate with them. 

The New Testament requires us to supply the 
temporal needs of the children of want as an 
antecedent to spiritual effort for their good (James 
ii). The Christian philanthropist is * distinguished 
from others who do good, in that the motive of 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


163 


one ends on the earthly condition of the object, 
while that of the other makes earthly benefits 
auxiliary to the spiritual good of the soul. One 
administers to man as an animal, the other to 
man as having a higher spiritual nature. But 
where temporal needs are not in the case, and 
where absence and other circumstances separate 
the suppliant from the object of his prayer, then 
it is an important question whether or not there 
be a connection in thought between the mind of 
the suppliant and the subject of his supplication. 
Intercession for rulers and for the general good 
of the State and society is, no doubt, a duty ; 
but even in such cases it may be supposed that 
the persons and the ends desired are in the 
mind of the suppliant. But it is very question- 
able, from Bible premises, and from many marked 
cases of answer to prayer,* whether the law of 
impression upon one mind in accordance with the 
prayer of another which is energized by the 
Holy Spirit, does not require the special per- 
sonal interest of the suppliant for the object of 
his intercession. The case of the text for the 
wayfarer in life’s journey — the prayers for Peter 


* See notes at the end of the chapter. 


164 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


in prison, indeed all the Scripture cases, directly 
or indirectly, imply that the objects of prayer 
were pressing upon the minds of the suppliants. 

If there be truth in this exposition two things 
are required — first, that the suppliant has him- 
self spiritual endowment from the Lord ; and, 
second, that the object of his intercession should 
be a special interest upon his mind when he 
prays. 

If these views are warranted, then those re- 
quests presented at the Fulton street prayer 
meeting, and other Christian assemblages, which 
speak in such general language as this: Prayer 
is requested for a certain man in Rochester , or at 
Natchez , or at the West , who is becoming intem- 
perate , — such requests give no direction to the 
minds of those who pray ; and the supplication 
offered cannot be under the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit, who indicates subjects of prayer and 
gives impression in regard to those subjects. 
The fact that such a request is presented shows 
that some Christian mind has a spirit of prayer 
for the subject referred to, and good may reach 
him, although not through the indefinite suppli- 
cation requested. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


165 


§ 53. — The miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit 

were not the product of the Indwelling Spirit , 

in the ordinary sense . 

There were occasions when the life and labors 
of the apostles were guarded by a special Prov- 
idence, and when miraculous powers were exerted 
as testimony to others, that God approved their 
ministry. Gifts of healing, knowledge of future 
events, and the abused gift of tongues, were 
among these. Such manifestations were Divine 
interpositions, on special occasions, through the 
apostles, rather than the normal manifestations 
of their internal spiritual life. These miraculous 
interventions, granted only in certain exigencies, 
were to cease, while the indwelling Spirit was 
to remain with believers until the end of the 
dispensation. 

The gift of tongues is one of the most diffi- 
cult subjects which an interpreter finds in the 
New Testament. Whether the annunciation of 
the foreign language at Pentecost was by the 
magnetic current from the brain of the apostles, 
which appeared as tongues, separated into two 
points, like flame, upon their heads ; or whether 
it was through their proper organs of speech, or 


166 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


both, we have now no way of determining. 
Subsequently, it is evident, no such tongues of 
flame appeared, and the exercise of this gift was 
discouraged. So much so was this the case, that 
Paul had to admonish the churches not to for- 
bid it altogether. With the limited permission 
granted by the apostle these were conditions 
which excluded all fanatical utterances : — such 
utterances, perhaps, of sincere enthusiasts as 
those who, in the days of Edward Irving, spoke 
in unintelligible voices which they believed were 
given by the Holy Ghost. The apostle limited 
the utterance to words which would edify the 
church, and urged his own reticence as an ex- 
ample to restrain the practice in others. The 
gift of tongues was not one of the promised gifts 
of the Spirit, hence its manifestation and his- 
tory differ from other supernatural endowments 
promised by the Lord. Tongues were for a sign, 
and on the day of Pentecost they were a spe- 
cial aid in introducing the gospel. 

But there were specific promises in regard to 
the miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit, 
as there were in regard to its fruits in the 
souls of believers. One of the transcendent 
gifts promised, was that, to some of the disci- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


167 


pies, in certain cases, the events of the future 
would be made known. “ He will show you 
things to come.” Hence, Stephen was put to 
death for affirming that God would destroy the 
city of Jerusalem, and change the institutions 
established by Moses. Paul informed the cap- 
tain of the vessel endangered by the storm that 
the crew would be saved. Agabus informed 
Paul of the bonds and imprisonment that awaited 
him at Jerusalem. And both Paul and Peter 
distinctly delineated the features of the incom- 
ing Papal apostasy, that ruled the darkness 
during the eclipse of the written Word in the 
dark ages. 

The gift of healing was likewise promised in 
connection with the commission to preach the 
gospel. It was not accomplished at will by the 
grace of the indwelling Spirit, but was exer- 
cised through the disciples, in answer to their 
supplication, and as exigences might require. 
Hence the disciples pray (Acts iv, 30), “ Grant 
unto thy servants boldness to speak the word, 
by stretching forth thy hand to heal, and that 
signs and wonders may be done in the name of 
thy holy child Jesus.” While the apostles, there- 
fore, realized their dependence upon miraculous 


168 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


interposition for prestige and acceptance in cases 
of exigency, they recognized the fact that the 
power, as to time and place, was in the hands 
of God. 

There was an intelligent discrimination made, 
by the first disciples, between the life of the 
indwelling Spirit and those acts of power which 
God accomplished through their agency. For 
the agency which they exerted in connection 
with the promptings of the Spirit they felt them- 
selves responsible. Hence the precepts, “ walk 
in the Spirit,” — “be filled with the Spirit,” — 
“praying in the Spirit,” — “grieve not the Holy 
Spirit of God.” But miraculous agency was 
subject to the Divine will, and although exerted 
for them and through them, the power, as to 
time and place, was above their control, — w r as 
exercised only on special occasions, and might 
be exercised through any agent, or upon any 
subject, according to need and use. 

The light of human experience in all ages, 
more especially in less enlightened ages and 
places, will enable us to appreciate some pecu- 
liar statements in apostolic history on this sub- 
ject. It is stated that when these miracles of 
healing had excited the minds of the people, 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


169 


the enthusiasm awakened, together with the hope 
of healing for themselves or their friends, led 
many into superstitious practices, such as often 
occur in similar cases. The persons of the apos- 
tles were looked upon as the sources of healing. 
Some brought the sick and laid them where the 
shadow of Peter in passing might fall upon 
them. Others brought scarfs and handkerchiefs 
to the diseased that had touched the person of 
Paul. And at Lystra, the priests of Jupiter 
could scarcely be restrained from offering sacri- 
fices to Paul and Barnabas, in consequence of 
the miracle of healing performed in their city. 

That many cases of healing occurred in such 
connection, by the influence which it is known 
an excited mind exerts upon the body, was 
doubtless true ; and it may have been, as in 
like cases, that the apostles had no conscious 
influence in the matter. The influence of the 
imagination to affect the body physically has not 
yet ceased in the world ; and in darker ages 
the effect was in proportion to the strength of 
superstition among the people. Hence the scrip- 
ture narrative not only accords with the super- 
natural, but with natural relations in that age. 


170 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


§ 54. — “ The prayer of faith shall save the sick , 
* * * and if he have committed sins they shall 
he forgiven .” 

4 

It is asked why the efficacy of prayer has 
ceased, or why Paul left a companion at Miletus 
sick, if there were gifts of healing that could 
be exercised at pleasure ? There is no satisfac- 
tory answer to such questions unless we find 
the moral principle which governed in such cases. 
All sicknesses originate in natural causes ; but 
in some cases they likewise have a moral con- 
nection, coming as a penalty for sin. It is a 
Bible principle, that those who have faith in 
God suffer in this life if they sin, whilst the 
disobedient are reserved for judgment until the 
future life. Hence sickness and other adverse 
providences often come as discipline in the case 
of believers who have committed offences against 
God of which they have not repented. The 
sicknesses removed by the prayer of faith be- 
longed to this category. 

The suffering of believers is made available 
to their moral good. Both their own personal 
affliction and the suffering of Christ are means 
of sanctification to those who have faith. Faith 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


171 


sees the hand of God in the affliction, and con- 
nects it with themselves in a moral sense ; hence 
the dispensation makes them more humble — 
more obedient — more holy. A true faith always 
transmutes physical evil to moral good. Thus 
the Christian is sanctified by affliction, and freed 
from the love and practice of sin, which would 
alienate the mind from God and produce future 
evil. As it is said in Scripture, 1 Cor. xi, 32, 
— “ When we are judged, we are chastened of 
the Lord, that we should not be condemned 
with the world.” But the unregenerated are 
“ reserved until the day of judgment to be pun- 
ished.” It would not be a benefit to the 
earthly-minded to punish them here. It would 
be adding providential evil to natural evil with- 
out benefit to the sufferer. It could do them 
no spiritual good, because it is faith alone that 
transmutes present evil to an everlasting benefit . 

The application of the principle is distinctly 
revealed in connection with the church of Corinth. 
The converts there, recently redeemed from 
heathenism, had fallen into abuses of the Lord’s 
Supper. They had turned a sacred memorial 
into a bacchanal feast. Hence many were under 
discipline, by debility and disease, and some had 


172 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


died. 1 Cor. xi, 30, — “ For this cause many are 
weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” 
They were under the discipline of affliction be- 
cause of their sin, and some were dead, because, 
perhaps, if they had lived they would have 
grown worse ; and hence it was benevolence 
that called them from a life which they were 
likely to abuse. Just as some churches are bene- 
fited when God takes their ministers to heaven 
(if indeed they go there), because they get a 
better man. 

Now those afflicted persons who were benefited 
by prayer and medical appliances administered 
in faith, were believers — Christians who were 
suffering discipline for the indulgence of some 
sin, an affliction of which perhaps these sinful 
indulgences were the natural cause ; as in the 
case of the Corinthians, whose debility and suf- 
fering had no doubt its origin in their bibulous 
excesses. Hence, when the sin was repented of 
— as the suffering came as a consequence, both 
naturally and morally — the cause and its con- 
sequences would be removed together. 

So in other like cases. It is stated in the 
context that the repentance of the sufferer was 
a concomitant in the removal of the affliction. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


173 


Then the prayer of faith would save the sick, 
and all would glorify God for His goodness. By 
the repentance of the subject, the aim of the 
discipline would be gained ; and by departing 
from his sin the natural cause of the disease 
would be removed ; and by faith the Church 
would see the goodness of God in the recovery 
of the sick. Hence it is added in the passage, 
“If he has committed sin it shall be forgiven 
him.” The end of the discipline is attained, 
the moral effect aimed at is accomplished, and 
the sick man recovers according to both the 
natural and moral economy of the Divine govern- 
ment. 

Whether such interposition by providential 
agency be necessary in the present state of the 
Church, others may judge. It would at least be 
well if intelligent physicians, who have learned 
enough to know that medical appliances are 
seldom of much value, had more faith in the 
power of the Great Physician, who, in accord- 
ance with preceding views, removed bodily mala- 
dies in order' that men might believe that He 
had power to remove the malady of the soul. 
(See Matt, ix, 6.) 


1T4 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


§ 55. — Was the Spiritual endowment imparted by 
laying on of hands to be transient or perma- 
nent in the churches ? 

Laying on of hands seems to have been under- 
stood in the primitive churches as an imparta- 
tion of spiritual influence from the minds of 
those in sympathy with Christ, to those who 
received the benediction. In the sixth chapter 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is given as one 
of the circle of foundation doctrines in the 
Christian system. The translators, by imperfect 
punctuation, have somewhat blinded its import. 
The passage, expounded according to the analogy 
of faith, is as follows : “ Advancing from the 
first principles of the gospel of Christ, which 
we accepted at our initiation, let us go onward 
to perfection, not laying over again the founda- 
tion principles, which are : (1) Repentance, or 
turning from dead works — i. e., works without 
love — to works produced by faith in Christ. 

(2) Faith towards God as manifest in the flesh. 

(3) Baptisms , or purification by the Holy Ghost, 
and its symbol water baptism. (4) The laying 
on of hands ; to communicate spiritual influence 
to qualify for official labor in the Church of 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


175 


God. (5) The resurrection of the dead. (6) 
Eternal judgment. 

Of these six foundation tenets the laying on 
of hands is the fourth. It was certainly one of 
the recognized ordinances of the Gospel accord- 
ing to the conception of those who founded the 
Christian institutions. That with them it implied 
the communication of the Holy Spirit as that Spirit 
energized in the souls of the administrators , there 
is no room for doubt. It becomes, therefore, an 
inquiry of deep importance whether the accom- 
panying grace of the Holy Spirit, imparted by 
the laying on of hands, was one of those gifts 
which was to cease with the founders of the 
New Testament Dispensation, or whether it was 
to continue as an efflux of Spiritual influence, 
imparted from gracious minds to others approved 
of God as gospel ministers ? 

There are well informed observers who think 
that after all the apocryphal or doubtful views 
of mesmerism are rejected, there is still sufficient 
evidence to believe that at the present time, as 
in all past times, the logos of one mind may, in 
certain pathological conditions, be transferred to 
another. Dr. Carpenter, the best living physiol- 
ogist, assents to this view. To such as sup- 


176 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


pose miracles are not in contravention of natu- 
ral law, such testimony may aid conviction. But 
apart from the deductions of physiology and 
psychology, there are scriptural and rational con- 
siderations in regard to this subject to which 
prayerful Christians ought to take heed. These 
we think favor the conclusion that the benedic- 
tion imparted by the laying on of hands, was 
an efflux of the indwelling Spirit, rather than an 
exercise of miraculous power. 

(а) It is spoken of as one of the fundamen- 
tal principles of Christianity. It is agreed that 
the other five were to continue in the church to 
the end of time — the same in import and effi- 
cacy as at the beginning. Can any good reason 
be adduced for making the laying on of hands 
an exception ? 

(б) The same hortatory instructions are appli- 
cable in this case as in other cases of the in- 
dwelling Spirit — the difference being only in the 
degree and the characteristics of the power im- 
parted. Hence the exhortation of Paul to Tim- 
othy : “ Neglect not the gift that is in thee, 
which was given thee by prophecy and by the 
laying on of 4 hands ’ of the Presbytery.” In 
this case the apostle affirms that the elders of 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


177 


the church imparted the gift, and the young 

preacher is called upon to exercise his agency 
in cooperation with the inward grace. 

(c) The Spirit was conferred in connection 
with belief of the truth. Truth is the instru- 

mentality by which the indwelling Spirit oper- 
ates to glorify God and produce spiritual good 
in men. Christ is the Truth, and His Spirit is 
the “ Spirit of Truth.” Men are born of the 
Truth, and sanctified by the Truth ; hence when 
the disciples of John were instructed in the 
fundamental elements of Christian truth — and 
not till then — they received the Spirit by the 
laying on of the apostle’s hands. 

There are certainly reasons for the inquiry 

whether the churches of our day, conceive of 

the indwelling Spirit, in believers, and its com- 
munications to fit men for particular labors, as 
did the early disciples. Everything of Divine 
excellence can be misdirected or perverted, hence 
the^e may be danger of a certain kind in urg- 
ing the evidence on this subject. Formalists and 
Simonists, and enthusiasts, may profess to com- 
municate Spiritual grace, while the only spirit 
that is in them is earthly and selfish. But 

ought not men of prayer and inward grace to 
12 


1T8 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


hope that the administration of this ordinance 
to persons who seek to glorify Christ in their 
life and ministry, will not be an empty form, 
but will be accompanied by an “ unction from 
the Holy One ” — a spiritual energy indwelling 
and yet diffusive that will be in some wise sub- 
ject to the agency of the recipient — and will 
enable him to “ preach the gospel with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven?” 

§ 56. — J Recondite laws of human nature connect 
themselves with this subject . 

Before our closing illustrations, a thought or 
two in regard to some profound natural rela- 
tions of the body and spirit may give complete- 
ness to this monograph of the operation of the 
Spirit of God. 

There is in nature what may be called, for 
want of a better definition — a sympathetic virtus 
— meaning thereby a quality of human nature 
which, when the soul is excited, causes it to 
impart of the spirit of its exercises to other 
minds. It may arise from, and be a proof of 
the solidarity of the human family, that an 
excited cord in the mind of one vibrates in 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


179 


others. If this is a characteristic of the nature 
of mankind, it is open to both evil and good 
influences, and as God imparts good according 
to the laws of the nature He has given to man, 
He would work through these laws in commu- 
nicating His grace from those nearest Christ to 
the more remote. We say through those nearest 
Christ, because the dispensations of the Holy 
Spirit come to us, as before stated, through the 
humanity of Jesus. If therefore this sympathetic 
virtus exists in human nature it existed in Christ, 
and hence the operations of His spirit would 
partake of its qualities.* 

This characteristic of our nature will, of course, 
manifest itself in an awakened state of the reli- 
gious sensibility — whether the revival of inter- 
est partake mostly of human or of Divine im- 
pulse. A pure revival of religion, which always 
produces “repentance” and restores “first love,” 
will necessarily partake of the marks of the 
Divine indwelling Spirit, as deduced in preced- 
ing sections : Not undue excitement, but peace ; 
Duty, which is not labor, but rest; Righteous- 

* Some man in the future, when this subject is better under- 
stood, will show that this quality of human nature is a reason 
why the Divine mercy should be manifested through the flesh. 


180 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


ness, which redresses wrong and produces Chris- 
tian integrity ; Faith, which works by love and 
casts out of the mind personal enmities and 
alienations. 

Men who have spiritual life impart of their 
human characteristics with the impartations of 
the Spirit diffused by them. We knew a church 
once that made decided progress in righteousness 
and love during a revival of religion. There was 
one man among the people who possessed the pres- 
ence of Christ in his heart, and who loved and 
obeyed as the rule of his life. At home and 
abroad, in labor or in social life, he did always 
what he thought would please the Redeemer. Dur- 
ing the progress of the interest in the church he 
was earnest but peaceful. He had unction and 
humility. As the interest advanced it took on 
something of the aspect of this faithful man’s 
exercises. It was peaceful, purifying, quicken- 
ing. It was his custom to give all his means, 
except a comfortable support for his family, to 
the cause of Christ. 

This religious interest tended strongly in this 
direction. It produced a conviction of duty 
that doubled the benevolent offerings of the 
members of that church from that day forward, 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT . 


181 


and gave a spirit of honesty and charity to 
professing Christians where before these qualities 
were deficient. He was an intelligent man ; he 
seemed naturally to oppose whatever injured 
others. He was intimate with pious people and 
with all who labored to do good ; but rather re- 
cluse, although not separate from the more worldly 
social class. The pastor of the church had ev- 
idence to believe that the spiritual graces of 
this disciple of the Lord was a source of power 
that reached his own mind and that of others ; 
and the influence of which will never cease. 


NOTES 

ILLUSTRATING SOME PHASES OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNICATION. 

\ 

I. 

The following statement is made by Rev. R. H. Will, of 
Illinois, a Methodist minister, in whose integrity all may con- 
fide. If such cases were collected by those who have personal 
knowledge of their occurrence, it would be difficult to assign 
them to the category of “ extraordinary coincidences.” 

“In a family whose name was Taylor, residing in England, 
the mother was known as a woman of unusual piety. She had 
a large family of children. It was her daily habit to take these 
children into her room and read a portion of Scripture and 
pray for each of them severally. They were all, as she hoped, 


182 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


converted at an early age, except the youngest one, whose name 
is George. This one resisted her entreaties, and seemed to pay 
no heed to her supplication. From youth to manhood he grew 
more obstinate and reckless, and terminated his connection with 
his home by enlisting, as a common soldier, in the English 
army. The mother was grieved, but did not despair. The 
company into which her son had enlisted was ordered to Quebec, 
in Canada ; but she continued, at the same hour each day, to 
pray specially for him, as she had for her other children. His 
course, however, in Canada, where I then resided, as far as the 
restraints of a soldier’s life would permit, was unsteady, and 
disorderly, and profane. 

“ On a certain Sabbath day, the mother knew not why, she 
was strongly impressed to pray for her absent son, and asked 
her friends in the church to unite with her in special prayer 
for the salvation of her youngest son, George, then a common 
soldier in Quebec, of whose case her friends were acquainted. 
They met and prayed unitedly, and specially that the young 
man might be ‘snatched as a brand from the burning.’ 

“At the same hour , as nearly as could be ascertained, the 
young man was in a drinking saloon, with companions as vio- 
lent and wicked as himself. His statement is, that an undefined 
sense of fear and sin came to him, so that he felt he must 
leave the place, which he did, intending to go to his barracks. 
On his way home, seeing a church door open and hearing 
singing, he entered the place, and in the agony of his mind 
cried for mercy to God. That night he became a new man. 
His companions ridiculed and persecuted him for weeks. He 
labored for their salvation individually, and when I last knew 
the company all but about twenty professed discipleship to 
Christ. R. H. Will.” 


THE HOL y SPIRIT. 


183 


ii. 

We know a man who has passed through the common ex- 
periences of a busy and successful life, whose spiritual experi- 
ences have been, to his own mind, an illustration and confir- 
mation of some of the modes of Divine communication spoken 
of in the preceding pages. He was reared in a family who 
were reverent towards God, and strict in the observance of the 
Sabbath, and in conscientious regard of the duties due to their 
fellow-men, albeit, like others in the old Scotch churches, they 
made no opposition to innocent social recreations. At an early 
age, this man had ideas of God and religion ; although when 
a young man he was sceptical — not concerning God, but con- 
cerning revelation — for a number of years. Yet during this 
period, although the social gayeties of the world were freely ac- 
cepted, there was an intuitive regard for the Sabbath, and an 
indisposition to a profane or vicious course of life. 

Among the recollections of this man, there is a distinct re- 
membrance of two unusual spiritual experiences before the age 
of manhood — the first when almost a child, the second after 
doubt had unwillingly come to his mind. Both these experi- 
ences began on the Sabbath. The first, when about thirteen 
years of age, was an experience of delightful peace of mind. 
There was a sense of God and duty in it, although this was 
not measured by any form of faith. The lad recognized it as 
“religion,” and spoke of it as such to his child companions; 
and they spoke to each other of him as having “become re- 
ligious.” How long this complacency in God lasted is not 
remembered; but it was a period of days, if not weeks. 

The second experience was of a different character. He was 
conscious of God but not of peace. He was sceptical in regard 
to the Scriptures, but he rose from his bed in the night and 


184 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


prayed earnestly that, if his doubts were wrong, he might be 
led to the truth. He felt sinful and unrestful, not in view of 
the future, but from a sense of God’s presence. After a season 
this unusual consciousness likewise passed away, and no renewal 
of either state occurred again until the time when he was, as he 
hoped, “ renewed in the spirit of his mind.” From the time of 
the second experience to the income of the new life there were 
years of study and work, with no conscious change of convic- 
tion or character at the time ; but afterwards he saw plainly 
that the sense of God and duty became less influential as years 
had passed by. 

After some years of business life he was providentially thrown 
into associations where the influences of prayer and piety were 
prevalent. This was, for him, a new phase of society. For a 
season he gave no heed, and felt no impression ; but there 
came to him afterwards a deep consciousness of sin — not sin in 
connection with past life so much as sin in the character of 
his own spontaneous exercises ; and because he felt unwilling to 
be what he knew he should be. He saw in his heart ingrati- 
tude to God in regard to past events, which he had not so 
considered before, He saw selfishness and evil imaginations as 
he had not seen them before. After months of unrest — not in 
view of future punishment, of which he never had a fearful 
apprehension, but in view of the evil of his own selfish exer- 
cises, he passed into a state of conscious peace. Immediately 
connected with this transition was a sense of the presence of 
God in nature and in providence. This sense of the Divine 
produced an elevated and delightsome state of mind. Some- 
thing in the soul reluctated against any unrighteous or selfish 
or lustful thought. Theological doctrines were not important — 
even the doctrine of God in Christ was not so distinct as it 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


185 


afterwards became. The New Testament had a new meaning, 
and the preacher a new life. Although he loved to live, at 
this time he was consciously not afraid to die ; and he still 
remembers expressions of surprise from friends when he stated 
that he did not fear death. And yet he had no distinct ap- 
prehension of what the future life is, except that those who 
die in the Lord have His presence and favor. Thus for many 
months there was pleasing peace — less in the morning than as 
the day advanced. He remembers once feeling, like Paul, that 
he could suffer privation, if thereby others might be brought 
truly to love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ ; and although he 
had at the time in his mind no analytical view of God mani- 
fest in the flesh, yet, when he first heard Christ preached in 
this hallowed state of mind, he leaned his head forward on 
the pew, and tears flowed freely, no one knowing of his emotion 
but himself. The state of mind was the same delightsome con- 
sciousness as that of his early boyhood. 

After many months of this pleasant inward life, the cares of 
this world gradually intervened, and the common Christian ex- 
perience superseded the life on the mount. There was still a 
sense of God in Providence and in Christ ; but sins of omis- 
sion and selfish motive were not so carefully avoided as before. 
He still lived, in a general sense, to please Christ, but con- 
science was not so complacent as formerly, and peace and love 
were not so prevalent as in past days. 

At times, during this man’s later years, a recurrence for • 
limited seasons of the first peaceful trust was experienced. 
But it was not the habitual state of mind. Perhaps something 
in nature or providence prevents this in some cases. But what 
might have been, if the doctrine of the indwelling Spirit had 
been taught as the apostles taught it, can not now be known. 


24 * 


186 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


Suffice it to say, that the Scripture doctrine, — “ Know ye not 
that the Holy Ghost dwells in you, except ye be reprobates,” 
was not expounded, nor apparently experienced, as it was in 
the earliest periods of the Christian Church ; nor as William 
Penn, Jeremy Taylor, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and 
other worthies expounded and experienced it. 

Subsequent passages in this gentleman’s spiritual history 
will perhaps throw light upon another phase of the sub- 
ject. Traveling once with a friend who constantly possessed 
the presence of the Spirit in his soul, they tarried midway in 
their journey at a farm house, and occupied the same bed dur- 
ing the night. When he arose the next morning, his soul was 
possessed of the same delightful peace which had been experi- 
enced in former years. He rose before his companion, and 
went out into the orchard, when nature again seemed to speak 
of God, and his mind was peaceful and praiseful, as in other 
days. 

On a subsequent occasion, during a special meeting of Chris- 
tians in a western city, he retired to rest with a graduate 
from Oberlin, where the presence of the Holy Spirit has been 
experienced as no where else in the nation. This man’s heart 
was full of zeal for the Lord. The next morning, after a sound 
sleep, the same spiritual consciousness manifest in the Oberlin 
student inspired in a measure, the mind of the gentleman who 
shared his bed ; and both spoke with earnestness and devotion 
in the assemblage they had convened to attend. 

Now, we shall make no effort to explain or apply these facts. 
The person spoken of had, so far as he was conscious, no 
agency in producing the states of mind described. Hence the 
influence of the imagination was not a factor in the case. 
His companions may have prayed for him on those nights. This 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


187 


may be, in part, or wholly, the exposition of the case ; but he had 
no anticipation of these experiences when they came, nor as 
they came. They were generally alike, and like former spir- 
itual experiences, varied only by prevailing interest in some 
subjects of religious import rather than others. 

It is not to be inferred from the foregoing that when per- 
sons in common cases are brought into contact with the spir- 
itually minded, that thereby spiritual efficacy is always imparted. 
Experience teaches otherwise. Some natures are more impressi- 
ble than others ; and the spiritual and the natural cooperate 
in the economy of the gospel. But if one who had knowledge 
of the truth, and desired to obey Christ, lacked spiritual impulse 
and unction, and if it be the Divine method that the influence 
of the Holy Spirit is radiated from those who pray to those 
who need, and in specific cases to qualify them for specific 
labor, then the bearing of such experiences as the foregoing, in 
connection with prayer, should be studied and understood. 








































































































































































I 



V 


APPENDIX. 











i 


\ 

r 

\ 


I f 


\ 

} 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


191 


A. 


HARMONY BETWEEN GENESIS AND GEOLOGY. 

If the visional theory of reconciling the Mosaic 
and Geological Cosmogonies is to be accepted, 
some modifications in the views of harmonists, 
as usually propounded, ought to be admitted. We 
will propose a modification which we think is 
more in accordance with the text, and with the 
requirements of geological facts, than the usual 
exposition. 

The elements of a vision must be composed of 
the material of preceding thought — of ideas pre- 
viously in the mind. Hence no idea that had 
not been conceived of in a waking state by the 
seer, could enter into the composition of his 
vision. 

Now, the multitudinous life in the primeval 
sea is implied in the statement that the life- 
giving Spirit “brooded over the waters.” It is 
likewise implied in the statement that “ there 
was light” before the first day. This life in the 


192 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


waters, however — in twilight, or mingled light 
and dark — had no connection with the future 
man. And as it was not an object of vision, 
no idea of it could exist in a human mind, and 
hence it would form no part of the panorama 
which passed before the mind of the seer. The 
whole paleozoic life - period, therefore, ought to 
be excluded from the vision, and from the first 
day-period of the Creation. 

Then, in the first chapter of Genesis, the first 
day begins, not at the beginning of the second 
verse, but in the middle of the fourth. This divi- 
sion, as we shall see, both the phraseology and 
the sense of the text require. Then the brood- 
ing of the life-begetting Spirit and the creation 
of light, in the paleozoic age, will be excluded 
from the day - periods, and thrown back to a 
point indefinitely anterior to the first day. Life 
in the vision will then properly begin with the 
first visible life, that is, with the vegetation which 
formed the prominent aspect of the carboniferous 
series, the first product of creation that is eco- 
nomically connected with man. 

Upon a reconsideration of the subject, I think 
the learned will accept this construction. There 
are plain reasons for beginning the first day- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


193 


period at tlie middle of the fourth verse : among 
others the following: 

1. The preceding words, “ God saw the light 
that it was good,” indicate in the usual way the 
end of a period ; a period signalized by the crea- 
tion of light, before the division of light and dark - 
ness — a division by which the first day was pro- 
duced , and before which day did not exist. 

2. The day -periods are composed of evening 
and morning, or a division of light and darkness, 
which, however, did not exist until after the 
process which begins at the middle of the fourth 
verse. And when the division had been made — 
not before — the light is called “day.” To extend 
the first day-period, therefore, further back than 
the middle of the fourth verse, would be to give 
it a place before the act of God, which consti- 
tuted it, had been put forth. 

3. By this arrangement, which a correct appre- 
hension of the visional theory and of the text 
both require, a better harmony is produced than 
a reasoning Christian or an unreasonable skeptic 
would expect. All life, animal and vegetable, 
indicated by the brooding of the Spirit, and the 
existence of light in the paleozoic age, is placed 

anterior to the first day — where the date of 
13 


194 


THE DOCTRINE OE 


Moses begins. This dim past furnishes a field 
without well defined limits, where the transcend- 
ental reason may revel amid the first obscure 
indication that there is a God. And the develop- 
ment of creative energy through the subsequent 
revealed periods of the earth’s progress comes 
into such harmony with the deductions of science 
as will be more satisfactory — perhaps a little sur- 
prising — to the merely scientific enquirer. A 
harmony which can be accounted for in no way if 
the divine guidance in the vision of Moses is 
rejected, except by supposing that accurate geo- 
logical knowledge not only existed in Egypt, but 
that it was developed by the same induction 
of facts which forms the basis of the science 
in our own time 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


195 


B. 


(Chap. II, p. 26.) 


ANTHEOPOPATISM. 

Neander (Dr. Aug.) assumes this conclusion , 
although the process by which he reaches it is 
not given. He says (Church Hist. chap, i.), — 
“ Philo was perfectly right in combating the 
sensuous anthropopathism of certain Jewish Rab- 
bis. But here, as it often happens, in avoiding 
one error he fell into another of an opposite 
character, by mistaking and overlooking the ob- 
jective and real truths which were at the ground- 
work of that anthropopathical form in which they 
were delivered — a form necessary not only to 
the multitude in early ages, but to man, as man , 
WHO CAN ONLY CONTEMPLATE THE DIVINE, UNDER 
THE ANALOGY, DEFINED INDEED AND ENNOBLED, 
BUT STILL THE ANALOGY OF THE HUMAN.” 

In accordance with the necessities of our lim- 
ited human mind was the manifestation of God 


196 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


in the flesh. In the future, when philosophy 
shall have escaped from the shadows in which 
she has been enveloped by the transcendental- 
ists, or dogmatic intuitionists (we do not speak 
invidiously) there will come a man who will 
demonstrate better than we have done, that by 
a manifestation in humanity alone can the divine 
be revealed to the human. Anthropology, as the 
only method of divine manifestation, has its laws, 
which are all fulfilled by the incarnation of the 
Logos. 

So Cousin, in Lecture Sixteen, on the True, 
Beautiful, and Good, says, “ God is the type of 
the moral personality that we carry in us. Man 
is a moral personality ; that is to say, he is 
endowed with reason and liberty. He is capable 
of virtue, and virtue has, in him, two principal 
forms, regard for others and love for others — 
justice and charity. 

“ Can there be among the attributes possessed 
by the creature something essential not possessed 
by the Creator ? Whence does the effect draw 
its reality and its being, except from its cause? 
What it possesses it borrows and receives. The 
cause, at least, contains all that is essential in 
the effect. What particularly belongs to the 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


19T 


effect is inferiority — a lack — an imperfection. 
From the fact alone that it is dependent and 
derived, it bears in itself the signs and condi- 
tions of dependence. If, then, we can not legit- 
imately conclude from the imperfection of the 
effect, that of the cause, we can and must con- 
clude from the excellence of the effect in the 
perfection of the cause, otherwise there would 
be something prominent in the effect, which 
would be without cause. 

“ Such is the principle of our theodicea. It 
is neither new nor subtle ; but it has not yet 
been thoroughly disengaged and elucidated, and 
it is, to our eyes, firm against every test. It 
is by the aid of this principle that we can , up to 
a certain point , penetrate into the true nature of 
God ” 


198 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


c. 


(Chap. III., p. 42.) 


THE SCIENTIFIC FORMULAE OF THE BIRTH OF 
CHRIST. 

Skeptical minds have imagined more difficul- 
ties than really exist in connection with the 
manner of Christ’s birth. Difficulties may easily 
be alleged, and yet if a Christ were born at 
all, whose nature was in advance of the present 
human species (as that of a Christ must neces- 
sarily be), the analogies of science would deter- 
mine that his conception and birth would be in 
accordance with the statement of the Scriptures. 

Almost all naturalists who have studied the 
fossil species as they succeed each other in the 
geological history of our globe, have supposed 
that the introduction of each new species was an 
immediate act of creation. Whether the new 
form with its faculties were produced by gesta- 
tion in a lower species, or in some other way, 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


199 


it is generally agreed that the life -power of the 
new form was introduced by the immediate, 
agency of the Creator. So it is in regard to the 
two moral species, the Adamic and the Christian, 
(1 Cor. xv, 45-48), The first man Adam was 
made a living soul ; the last Adam a life - giv- 
ing Spirit. Howbeit [in the process of devel- 
opment] “that was not first which is spiritual, 
but that which is natural ; and afterwards that 
which is spiritual. The first man is of the 
earth, earthy : the second man is the Lord from 
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also 
that are earthy : and as is the heavenly, such 
are they also that are heavenly.” That is, Adam 
is the head of an inferior species., whose supreme 
motive and supreme end lie in the earth. 
Christ, the second Adam, is the head of a 
superior species, whose motives and end are 
spiritual, above the earth. Hence “ that which 
is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born 
of the Spirit is spirit.” Christ, as the Son of 
Man, was a new species of the human genus, 
and the type and head of His species. The 
germ of the new creature is imparted, by regen- 
eration, and developed out of the old Adamic 
nature; and in the resurrection, the corporeity 


200 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


of those in whom is the image of Christ will 
be developed into “the likeness of Christ’s glo- 
rified body.” “ We shall awake in his likeness.” 
Hence the birth of Christ, as the first of a 
superior species of the genus homo ; and the 
promises, to those who have spiritually “ put on 
the new man in Christ Jesus,” are in accord- 
ance with the order of the Divine working in 
nature, and with the law of progress which has 
ruled in the processes of creative energy from 
the beginning. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


201 




D. 


(Chap. IV., p. 54.) 


PAUL, NOT MATTHIAS, THE TWELFTH APOSTLE. 

The Apostle Paul was by education and natural 
endowment especially qualified for the work of 
teaching the gospel to the powerful and the 
learned. The other eleven were men from the 
masses, and fitted to gain sympathy and feel 
sympathy with them. Paul (one in twelve) was 
learned in Jewish and Grecian literature ; and 
he was called to his work after the foundations 
had been laid at the bottom of society by the 
other apostles. Reformations always begin near 
the bottom of society and work upwards. The 
highest and the lowest are the most depraved 
circles, excepting always the criminals, who are 
enemies of all society. Hence it follows that 
spiritual religion generally reaches the upper 
circles in Church and State last of all. But 
still some rich and noble are called up to the 


202 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


meekness of the gospel, and Paul was the man 
to call such to repentance. He was a man of 
means, of character, and of culture ; and hence 
his agency was needed to bring the truth before 
the educated classes of his time. He was a 
sincere Jew, according to Moses, having passed 
in his experience from a state of natural reli- 
gion, or the patriarchal, to a state of conviction 
by the law — to the Pharisee state, in which he 
sought for salvation, as many do now, by ritual 
observances — the state which Luther had reached 
when he found the Bible at Erfurth. Paul’s 
religious propensions, his sincerity, his culture, 
fitted him, when endued with the Spirit, for an 
extraordinary place in the company of the apos- 
tles. To fill this place, Jesus personally chose 
him to the apostleship. Forgiven, because he 
had ignorantly persecuted believers, supposing 
that he was doing God service — called from the 
midst of the shekinah by the voice of Christ ; 
when a suitable time had passed for the tumult 
of thought to subside, and prayer and reflection 
to supervene, he was instructed and converted, 
and then, without “ consulting flesh and blood,” 
he began the great labor of his life, — a labor 
by which, u being dead, he yet speaketh.” 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


203 


As before stated, liis special commission is de- 
clared, and his commission given ; Acts ix, 15, 
16, — “ He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear 
my name before Gentiles, and kings, and the 
children of Israel ; and I will show him how 
great things he shall suffer for my sake.” He, 
too, “had seen Christ, as one born out of due 
time,” and was chosen, Acts xxii, 15, u to be 
a witness to all men of what he had seen and 
heard.” 

Paul claimed to be an apostle in the same 
sense in which the other eleven were apostles. 
Some, it seems, had doubted his apostolic author- 
ity ; hence to the Corinthians he says (1 Cor. 
ix, 2), “ If I be not an apostle to others, yet 
doubtless I am to you : for the seal of mine 
apostleship are ye in the Lord.” And again, 
(2 Cor. xi, 5), “ For I suppose that I am nothing 
behind the very chiefest of the apostles.” 

He administered discipline in the name, and 
by the authority, of an apostle. 1 Cor. v, 3-5, 
— For I verily, as absent in body, but present 
in spirit, have determined already, as though I 
were present, concerning him that hath done this 
deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to 
deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruc- 


204 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


tion of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved 
in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 

He likewise ordained pastors or bishops in the 
churches, and imparted the Holy Spirit by the 
laying on of his hands. 

Another special mark of apostleship, promised 
by the Saviour, was, that they should “go forth, 
and bear fruit, and that their fruit should re- 
main.” Paul’s epistles are numerous and spirit- 
ual. They “ remain,” a permanent fruit of his 
life, in the churches. They were recognized as 
Scripture by the apostles themselves (2 Pet. iii, 
15, 16), and they will be received as Holy 
Scripture till the end of the world. 

Finally, God, by His Spirit and His provi- 
dence, recognized Paul as an apostle, enduing 
him with apostolic gifts and graces, delivering 
him from enemies, and working in him and 
through him for the detachment of the new dis- 
pensation from the old, to which believing Jews 
then adhered, as many modern Christians still 
do, with the utmost tenacity. 

Several things may be learned from the haste 
of Peter in acting without the promised Spirit, 
and the subsequent call of Paul by the Lord 
Jesus Christ himself. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


205 


Ordination, where there is no Holy Spirit, is 
not scriptural ordination. The laying on of hands 
by men who do not possess the spirit of Christ 
themselves, is not consecration. Hence, offices 
and interests imparted by men or churches whose 
spirit is merely formal and secular, have no 
Divine validity. The men appointed under such 
circumstances may be good and useful, as many 
of them are. Communications of grace from 
above may be granted them. But the seal of 
God is not in the act of ordination. And Paul, 
called of God, with only the right hand of fel- 
lowship given him by the apostles, does the 
work of God better than Matthias, ordained by 
non-spiritual administrators. 


206 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


E. 


(Chap. V., p. 102.) 

THE SOURCE OF FANATICISM. 

The want of a clear perception of the doc- 
trine that the Holy Spirit does not speak of 
Himself — does not teach any new thing — has 
been a fruitful source of disorder and fanaticism 
in all ages. Some who have claimed to be led 
by the Spirit have forgotten that the Spirit 
leads only by the truth which Christ revealed 
in the New Testament. The Spirit brings truth 
to remembrance, but it is by the law of sug- 
gestion — and it is “ all things whatsoever Christ 
said” — not new truth or revelation to individ- 
uals. The Spirit can not bring to remembrance 
truth that was never in the mind, hence in- 
struction in truth is in order to the work of the 
Spirit . Moreover, persons wh.0 claim to be 
moved by the Holy Spirit ought not to forget 
that “the spirit of the prophets is subject unto 


THE IIOL V SPIRIT . 


207 


the prophets.” Paul could speak with tongues 
more than all others, yet he would not do it, 
and seems to censure those who did. 

The sure point of fanaticism is when an in- 
dividual claims that his mind is passively con- 
trolled by Divine influence. If the Spirit con- 
trols the will of the subject in worship or duty, 
it is not the free responsible subject worshiping 
God, but God worshiping and obeying Himself. 
The precepts of the New Testament in regard 
to the Spirit are all addressed to the human 
agent. “Walk in the Spirit.” “Be filled with 
the Spirit.” “ Grieve not the Spirit.” ThSse 
imply the self-control of the being who receives 
the command — self-control in regard to, and under 
the influence of, the Spirit of Grod. 

The word and example of Christ are tne 
guides, — the spirit is power prompting to speak 
and to do. It gives the impulse of life and love 
in the heart or sensibility, and through the 
emotions of conscience and love the will is in- 
fluenced to obey Christ. Any one that cla^ 
to be wise above what is written, or to have 
received any new revelation from the Spirit, or 
to be filled with a spirit that produces any other 


208 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


impulse than doing good to men ,* — such claim in 
itself is evidence that the impression does not 
come from the Spirit of Christ. 

The fanaticism of impulse, apart from revealed 
ruth, has been the bane by which Satan has 
abated the strength and impeded the progress 
of all great moral reformations. It marred and 
arrested the progress of the Lutheran Reforma- 
tion on the Continent. The Wesleys labored 
wisely and earnestly to discriminate the vital 
doctrine of the Spirit from the delusive and 
emotional experiences which manifested themselves 
in some departments of their work. Jonathan 
Edwards wrote a treatise on the same subject ; 
many of the Friends or Quakers erred in the 
same direction. It is the point where the holiest 
minds are sometimes tempted. This is exempli- 
fied in the temptation of the Saviour. When 
Christ overcame the temptations of the devil by 
trust in God, the next temptation was to lead 
the mind too far in the direction where it had 
experienced Divine favor; hence the temptation 
was, to pass from trust to presumption. Christ, 

* See “ God Revealed in Creation and in Christ.” Book II, 
chap. 6. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


209 


as man’s example, maintained His integrity by 
walking in the path of duty, guided by a true 
application of Scripture , which He quoted and 
applied to His circumstances. 

William Penn saw the liability to error at 
this point, and frequently in his larger treatises, 
as in the lesser exposition of the Quaker tenets, 
states the correct doctrine of the Word and 
Spirit. In the tract called “ Gospel Truths,” he 
gives “ a brief account of those things which 
are chiefly received and professed among us, the 
people called Quakers, according to the testimony 
of the Scriptures of truth, and the illumination 
of the Holy Ghost, which are the double and 
agreeing record of true religion .” 

In the “ General Epistle to the People of 
God ” he says, “ His word of light, grace, and 
truth in the heart, will cleanse the young man’s 
ways, and guide the old man in the path he 
should walk to peace. I found that from the 
revelation of this word in the soul springs the 
true conviction and knowledge of God, and a 
man’s self, and by nothing else can a man be 
convicted and born again.” 

In the tract, “ Fiction Found Out,” he briefly 
14 


210 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


enunciates his confession of faith. The first item 
is, “ That the grace of God within me, and the 
Scriptures without me, are the foundation and 
declaration of my faith and religion, and let any 
man get better if he can.” 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


211 


F. 


(Chap. VI, p. 105.) 


VIEWS OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS CONCERNING THE 
SECOND APPEARANCE OF CHRIST. 

It is doubtful whether the apostles ever under- 
stood? as we may now, the relations of the 
promise in regard to Christ’s second appearing.* 
The time of His appearing to destroy the tem- 
ple, and with it the old dispensation, they did 
not definitely know, although they had intima- 
tions by which they might discern its approach, 
and prepare for the event (Heb. x, 25). But 
of the period of Christ’s appearing to judge the 
world they had no knowledge, and the Saviour 
refused to give them even an intimation upon 
the subject, except that the papal apostacy would 
first rise and fall. Christ’s coming and the end 

* It was best, in many views of the subject, that this and 
some other non-essentials should not be fully developed in the 
first period. 


212 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


of the world were events always associated in 
the minds of the disciples. When He had spoken 
to them of the certain destruction of the city 
and of the temple, affirming (Matt, xxiv, 2), 
“ there shall not be one stone left upon another,” 
the disciples inquire concerning two things spe- 
cifically: (1) “Tell us when shall these things 
(the destruction of the temple) be ; and (2), 
“What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and 
of the end of the world ? ” To these two ques- 
tions Jesus answers. His answers are clear, 
although commentators generally confuse the 
sense. To the first, the destruction of the city, 
He answers, Matt, xxiv, from the 4th to the 
29th verse, giving intimation of the approaching 
fall of Jerusalem, and indicating in the last verse 
of the passage that the city, which would be 
destroyed within the lifetime of some then liv- 
ing, would be overthrown by the Roman army. 

From the 29th to the 31st verse He speaks 
of the general diffusion of the gospel through 
the known world by His disciples, who would 
be preserved in the fall of the city, and dis- 
persed at the destruction of the Jewish state. 
The sun and stars are, throughout the Bible, 
the proper symbols for the ruling powers of a 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


213 


state. By the desolation and fall of these the 
disciples are taught that the Jewish state and 
rulers would be thrown down at the destruction 
of Jerusalem. The power of the old dispensa- 
tion would cease; — then the power of the new 
dispensation would appear in progress — a pro- 
gress to be accomplished by the dispersion of the 
Christians, who had been admonished to flee 
from Jerusalem, and probably from Judea, and 
who carried the gospel whithersoever they went. 

Then, from the 32nd to the 35th verses, He 
tells them when they should see the natural in- 
dication of such events as those of which He 
had spoken ; then, to be assured that the end 
of the Jewish state and dispensation was at hand, 
and to flee speedily from the coming destruction. 

But in regard to the second question (or the 
second and third, if any choose to construe it 
in that sense) He answers with the same ex- 
plicitness. They ask, secondly, “ And what will 
be the sign of thy coming , and of the end of the 
world?” 

To this, after answering the first, He replies 
from the 36th to the 46th verses, “Of that day 
and that hour knoweth no man , no, not the angels 
of heaven , but my Father only.” 


214 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


He tells them that the latter period would 
come unexpectedly. That the duty in regard to 
that event was to watch and to work as a ser- 
vant. That character, not outward circumstances, 
would be the criterion of safety (ver. 40, 41). 
He then, in the 25th chapter, gives the Parable 
of the Virgins, indicating an absence longer than 
was anticipated, and that, on account of the ap- 
parent delay, spirituality and watchfulness would 
abate in true Christians, and be lost by forma- 
lists. The Parable of the Talents follows, to 
show that the period was distant, but at the 
same time it was as near in one sense as the 
close of each man’s probation. When each had 
used his talent in the absence of his Lord, then 
an account must be given, and judgment passed 
in view of the use of the talents intrusted to 
each individual. The passage closes with the 
final scene of the judgment, predicated on pro- 
bation, in which He represents Himself as the 
representative of the suffering and the needy, 
and assures them that at His final advent men 
will be judged in view of the good they had 
done in His name to their fellow-men ; and 
that He will receive good done to others as 
being done to Himself ; and that their future 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


215 


destiny will depend upon a life-time of loving 
labor for the ignorant and the needy. He makes 
no event to intervene between probation and 
judgment. 

There are different dispositions of the several 
verses by different evangelists, which may perplex 
the expositor, but the outline and impression of 
the whole are the same. (1.) The place of the 
Jewish dispensation and state was to be destroyed 
in that generation. (2.) The dispersed Christians 
to preach, in time of distress, the gospel through- 
out the world. (3.) The time of the judgment 
at the end of the world unknown. (4.) Christ 
would be absent in person. A probation under 
the gospel would ensue, but during the long 
delay Christians would cease to watch, and sleep 
together with formal professors. But unexpect- 
edly, at the end of personal probation, or at 
death, the Lord would come to reward the faith- 
ful, punish the unprofitable, and destroy those 
who rebelled against the reign of justice and 
love. It was therefore not only inexpedient, 
but it was merciful, in view of the circumstances 
of the early disciples, that the long period which 
was to intervene in time between the first and 
second personal advent should not be made 


216 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


known to them. It is difficult, in our present 
state, to connect the end of life and the end of 
the world together in the same motive ; and 
yet, in both a practical and a spiritual sense, 
they are the same, albeit one be distant in time 
and the other near in eternity. All the actions 
upon which judgment is predicated close at death. 
As in a dream the sleepers are probably con- 
scious of activity, of locality, of joy, while yet 
they may have no sense of time. Hence death 
and judgment, although temporarily distant, may 
be spiritually near. 

All we can do in probation is limited by the 
end of life ; and the motive to watch and to 
work is the same in both forms. Yet the king- 
dom of Christ, and Christ’s personal coming at 
hand, have more of the spirit of faith and of 
immortality in them than the idea that the end 
of life is near. Hence it was no part of Christ’s 
mission to reveal the judgment-period in any 
form. It was not revealed to the Son of Man, 
nor to the angels, but was known to the Father 
only. Therefore said Jesus to His inquiring 
disciples, even after His resurrection, “ It is not 
for you to know the times or the seasons which 
the Father hath puc in his own power.” The 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


217 


true and the operative idea is to believe Christ’s 
coming at hand. 4 4 After death the judgment.” 

But even after the outpouring of the Spirit, 
the question continued to be agitated. The first 
converts knew there were admonitions concern- 
ing watchfulness, flight, life, death, and judg- 
ment ; and they did not discriminate between 
the end of the old dispensation, and that of the 
new. Scoffers, — probably apostates, — began to 
urge objections, and in some of the first churches 
there was anxiety in the minds of believers on 
the question of Christ’s personal appearance. The 
people being thus interested and anxious, the 
apostles reply to the scoffers, present and pros- 
pective, on one hand, and to sincere inquirers 
on the other. They tell all they know in re- 
gard to the matter, and all that was necessary 
for the guidance of Christians in order to their 
sanctification. 

To those who scoffed and said (2 Pet. iii), 
“ Where is the promise of his coming, for since 
the Father fell asleep all things have continued 
as they were from the beginning of the crea- 
tion ? ” the apostle answers in a form applica- 
ble to the past and present. 

The same class of scoffers exist now, as then. 


218 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


God, they say, instituted the laws of nature at 
the creation, He then withdrew. All things 
take place by law since the beginning, and 
therefore no divine interposition is possible. Peter 
replies, affirming that geological changes have 
taken place in the past, even to the destruction 
of the earth ; and hence they may occur again. 
He affirms that the delay is in order to pro- 
bation, that God desires to save some out of a 
selfish race ; that the time, although long to us, 
is not long to God ; but that the end will 
come; the judgment will sit, and God will des- 
troy the wicked and the world together, and 
after the change there will ensue “new heavens 
and a new earth, in which shall dwell the 
righteous.” Then, lest the notion of Christ at 
hand might lose force by his exposition, he closes 
his epistles by the faithful words, “Ye there- 
fore, beloved, seeing ye know these things be- 
fore, beware lest ye also, being led astray by 
the error of the wicked [that Christ will not 
come], fall from your own steadfastness.* But 
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our 

Thus Christ’s personal advent at hand was, as Gibbon 
alleges, made a motive to induce steadfastness in the apostolic 
age, as it has been at various periods down to our own time. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


219 


Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory 
both now and forever. Amen.” 

The Apostle Paul answers to those believers 
at Thessalonica, who were anxious in regard to 
this subject. In his first letter he had spoken 
of the final judgment (chap, iv, 13-18), and 
had described the hopes connected with the mo- 
mentous event as a consolation to believers whose 
friends had deceased. He tells them to comfort 
themselves by these words ; but immediately 
adds, — “ But of the times and the seasons, 
brethren, ye have no need that I write unto 
you. For yourselves know perfectly that the 
day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the 
night. For when they shall say, Peace and 
safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon 
them.” These are the words of Christ repeated 
in the language of Paul. 

But this church, probably by erroneous preach- 
ing and false spirits, was led to misconceive this 
language of the apostle in his first letter. He 
hears of this, and corrects their wrong impres- 
sions in his second. He tells them of further 
intimations which Christ had left with His apos- 
tles in regard to the same subject. He says 
there must come a great apostasy before the 


220 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


second coming of Christ. He then, in 2 Thess. 
iii, describes the Papal Apostasy in its most 
striking features, and says it must rise and reign 
and be destroyed before the second advent of 
the Redeemer, and closes, as the Apostle Peter 
has done, with an exhortation to steadfastness.* 
The apostasy spoken of has risen and reigned. 
In the Reformation, the judgment turned against 
it. Now God by His providence and His truth 
is “ consuming and destroying it unto the end.” 
All anti-Christian powers are in their decadence. 
Judgment, even to the seventh vial, is being 
inflicted upon every nation, state and church 
that refuses to make moral progress. The end 
is at hand. “ Even so come Lord Jesus.” 


* Eph. vi, 6 — Heb. iv, 12. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


221 


G. 


(Chap. VI, p. 115.) 


BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR ON THE EVIDENCE OF 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

The progress of spiritual religion has been but 
little furthered by the publication of many trea- 
tises on the evidences of Christianity ; especially 
treatises on the external evidence, according to 
the manner of the eminent Dr. Chalmers. Such 
external evidences have their place, but it is not 
the place usually assigned them. They may aid 
the intellect in regard to an historical question ; 
but it may be doubted whether they turn the 
attention of those most enlightened by them in 
a right direction. There is such a thing as the 
faith of men standing “in the wisdom of man 
and not in the power of God.” Paul sought to 
avoid such a result in connection with his 
teaching. Treatises such as those of Erskine, 
Jenys, and others, showing that gospel principles 


222 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


are true in themselves, and in their adaptation 
to man’s nature and wants, are of spiritual value, 
because they relate not to the letter but to the 
principles — the spirit and practice of the gospel. 
Yet, after all, there is a witness to the gospel 
accompanying the truth, and offered to all men 
who are willing to obey Christ. That witness 
is infallible. It is the “ Spirit of Christ that is 
witness for us.” 

The following passages, on the subject of the 
true evidence of the Divine in our holy religion, 
are taken from the excellent treatise of Dr. 
Knox — “Christian Philosophy.” 


Opinions of Bishop Taylor respecting the Evidence 
of the Holy Spirit; “ showing ,” as he expresses 
it , “ how the scholars of the Universities shall 
become most learned and most useful .” 

“We have examined all ways, in our inquiries 
after religious truth, but one ; all but God’s 
way.* Let us, having missed in all the other, 
try this. Let us go to God for truth ; for truth 
comes from God only. If we miss the truth, it 


* See Bishop Taylor’s “Via Intelligentiae,” 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT 


223 


is because we will not find it; for certain it is, 
that all the truth which God hath made neces- 
sary, He hath also made legible and plain ; and 
if we will open our eyes we shall see the sun, 
and if ‘ we will walk in the light, we shall 
rejoice in the light.’ Only let us withdraw the 
curtains, let us remove the impediments, and 
the sin that doth so easily beset us. That is 
God’s way. Every man must, in his station, do 
that portion of duty which God requires of him, 
and then he shall be taught of God all that is 
fit for him to learn ; there is no other way for 
him but this. The fear of the Lord is the be- 
ginning of wisdom ; and a good understanding 
have all they that do thereafter. And so said 
David of himself : ‘ I have more understanding 
than my teachers ; because I keep thy command- 
ments.’ And this is the only way which Christ 
has taught us. If you ask, ‘What is truth?’ 
you must not do as Pilate did, ask the question 
and then go away from Him that only can give 
you an answer; for as God is the Author of 
truth, so He is the Teacher of it, and the way 
to learn is this ; for so saith our blessed Lord ; 
‘ If any man will do his will, he shall know of 
the doctrine whether it be of God or no.’ 


224 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


“ This text is simple as truth itself, but greatly 
comprehensive, and contains a truth that alone 
will enable you to understand all mysteries, and 
to expound all prophecies, and to interpret all 
Scriptures, and to search into all secrets, all, 1 
mean, which concern our happiness and our 
duty. It is plainly to be resolved into this 
proposition : 

“ The way to judge of religion is by doing 
our duty ; and theology is rather a divine life 
than a divine knowledge. 

“ In heaven, indeed, we shall first see and 
then love; but here on earth we must first love, 
and love will open our eyes as well as our 
hearts, and we shall then see and perceive and 
understand. 

“ Every man understands more of religion by 
his affections than by his reason. It is not the 
wit of the man, but the spirit of the man ; not 
so much his head as his heart that learns the 
divine philosophy. 

“ There is in every righteous man a new vital 
principle. The spirit of grace is the spirit of 
wisdom, and teaches us by secret inspirations, by 
proper arguments, by actual persuasions, by per- 
sonal applications, by effects and energies ; ' and 

S) U f 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


225 


as the soul of man is the cause of all his vital 
operations, so is the Spirit of God the life of 
that life, and the cause of all actions and pro- 
ductions spiritual ; and the consequence of this 
is what St. John tells us of : ‘Ye have received 
the unction from above, and that anointing 
teacheth you all things,’ — all things of some one 
kind ; that is, certainly all things that pertain 
to life and godliness : all that by which a man 
is wise and happy. Unless the soul have a new 
life put into it, unless there be a vital principle 
within, unless the Spirit of life be the informer 
of the spirit of the man, the word of God will 
be as dead in the operation as the body in its 
powers and possibilities. 

“ God’s spirit does not destroy reason, but 
heightens it. God opens the heart and creates 
a new one, and without this creation, this new 
principle of life, we may hear the word of God, 
but we can never understand it ; we hear the 
sound, but are never the better. Unless there 
be in our hearts a secret conviction by the Spirit 
of God, the gospel itself is a dead letter. 

“ Do we not see this by daily experience ? 
Even those things which a good man and an 
evil man know they do not know both alike A " 


15 



226 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


evil man knows that God is lovely, and that sin 
is of an evil and destructive nature, and when 
he is reproved he is convinced ; and when he 
is observed he is ashamed ; and when he has 
done he is unsatisfied ; and when he pursues 
his sin, he does it in the dark. Tell him he 
shall die, and he sighs deeply, but he knows it 
as well as you. Proceed, and say that after 
death comes judgment, and the poor man be- 
lieves and trembles ; and yet, after all this, he 
runs to commit his sin with as certain an event 
and resolution as if he knew no argument 
against it. 

“ Now since, at the same time, we see other 
persons, not so learned, it may be, not so much 
versed in the Scriptures, yet they say a thing 
is good and lay hold of it. They believe glo- 
rious things of heaven, and they live accordingly, 
as men that believe themselves. What is the 
reason of this difference? They both read the 
Scriptures ; they read and hear the same ser- 
mons ; they have capable understandings ; they 
both believe what they hear and what they read; 
and yet the event is vastly different. The rea- 
son is that which I am now speaking of : the 
one understands ' by one principle, the other by 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


227 


another ; the one understands by nature, the 
other by grace ; the one by human learning, the 
other by divine ; the one reads the Scriptures 
without, and the other within; the one under- 
stands as a son of man, the other as a son of 
God ; the one perceives by the proportions of 
the world, the other by the measures of the 
Spirit ; the one understands by reason, the other 
by love ; and therefore he does not only under- 
stand the sermons of the Spirit and perceive 
their meaning, but he pierces deeper, and knows 
the meaning of that meaning ; that is, the secret 
of the Spirit, that which is spiritually discerned, 
that which gives life to the proposition and 
activity to the soul. And the reason is, that he 
hath a divine principle within him and a new 
understanding ; that is, plainly, he hath love, 
and that is more than knowledge, as was rarely 
well observed by St. Paul : 4 Knowledge puffeth 
up ; but charity* edifieth ; ’ that is, charity 
maketh the best scholars. No sermons can build 
you up a holy building to God unless the love 
of God be in your hearts, and purify your souls 
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. 

“A good life is the best way to understand 


Ayann, — “ Love of God.” 


228 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


wisdom and religion, because, by the experiences 
and relishes of religion, there is conveyed to 
them a sweetness to which all wicked men are 
strangers. There is in the things of God, to 
those who practice them, a deliciousness that 
makes us love them, and that love admits us into 
God’s cabinet, and strangely clarifies the under- 
standing by the purification of the heart. For 
when our reason is raised up by the Spirit of 
Christ, it is turned quickly into experience ; when 
our faith relies upon the principles of Christ it 
is changed into vision ; and so long as we know 
God only in the ways of men, by contentious 
learning, by arguing and dispute, we see nothing 
but the shadow of Him, and in that shadow 
we meet with many dark appearances, little cer- 
tainty, and much conjecture ; but when we know 
Him in the Spirit, and see Him with the eyes 
of holiness and the instruction of gracious expe- 
riences, with a quiet spirit and the peace of 
enjoyment, then we shall hear what we never 
heard, and see what our eyes never saw ; then 
the mysteries of godliness shall be open unto 
us, and clear as the windows of the morning ; 
and this is rarely well expressed by the apostle; 
‘ If we stand up from the dead and awake from 
sleep, then Christ shall give us light.’ 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


229 


44 For the Scriptures themselves are written by 
the Spirit of God, yet they are written within 
and without ; and besides the light that shines 
upon the face of them, unless there be a light 
shining within our hearts, unfolding the leaves, 
and interpreting the mysterious sense of the 
Spirit, convincing our consciences and preaching 
to our hearts, to look for Christ in the leaves 
of the gospel is to look for the living among 
the dead. There is a life in them , but that 
life is, according to St. Paul’s expression, 4 hid 
with Christ in God,’ and unless the Spirit of 
God draw it forth, we shall not be able. 

44 Human learning brings excellent ministries 
towards this ; it is admirably useful for the re- 
proof of heresies, for the detection of fallacies, 
for the letter of the Scriptures, for collateral 
testimonies, for exterior advantages ; but there 
is something beyond this, that human learning 
Avithout the addition of divine can never reach. 

4 A good man, though unlearned in secular 
knowledge, is like the Avindows of the temple, 
narroAV without and broad within ; he sees not 
so much of what profits not abroad, but Avhat- 
soever is within, and concerns religion and the 
glorifications of God, that he sees Avith a broad 


230 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


inspection ; but all human learning with God is 
but blindness and folly. One maif discourses of 
the sacrament, another receives Christ ; one dis- 
courses for or against transubstantiation ; but the 
good man feels himself to be changed, and so 
joined to Christ, that he only understands the 
true sense of transubstantiation, while he becomes 
to Christ bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, 
and of the same spirit with his Lord. 

“ From holiness we have the best instruction. 
For that which we are taught by the Holy 
Spirit of God, this new nature, this vital prin- 
ciple within us, it is that which is worth our 
learning ; not vain and empty, idle and insig- 
nificant notions, in which, when you have labored 
till your eyes are fixed in their orbs, and your 
flesh unfixed from its bones, you are no better 
and no wiser. If the Spirit of God be your 
Teacher, He will teach you such truths as will 
make you know and love God, and become like 
to Him, and enjoy Him for ever, by passing 
from similitude to union and eternal fruition. 

“Too many scholars have lived upon air and 
empty notions for many ages past, and troubled 
themselves with tying and untying knots, like 
hypochondriacs in a fit of melancholy, thinking of 


THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


231 


nothings, and troubling themselves with nothings, 
and falling out about nothings, and being very 
wise and very learned in things that are not, 
and work not, and were never planted in Para- 
dise by the finger of God. If the Spirit of God 
be our teacher, we shall learn to avoid evil and 
to do good, to be wise and to be holy, and to 
be profitable and careful ; and they that walk 
in this way shall find more peace in their con- 
sciences, more skill in the Scriptures, more satis- 
faction in their doubts, than can be obtained by 
all the polemical and impertinent disputations of 
the world. The man that is wise, he that is 
conducted by the Spirit of God, knows better 
in what Christ’s kingdom doth consist than to 
throw away his time and interest, his peace and 
safety, — for what? for religion? no; for the 
body of religion ? not so much ; for the gar- 
ment of the body of religion ? no, not for so 
much ; but for the fringes of the garment of 
the body of religion ; for such, and no better, 
are many religious disputes; things, or rather 
circumstances and manners of things, in which 
the soul and spirit are not at all concerned. 
The knowledge which comes from godliness is 
an unction from the Holy One — a something 


232 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


more certain and divine than all demonstrations 
and human learning. 

u And now to conclude: — to you I speak, 
fathers and brethren, you who are, or intend to 
be, of the clergy ; you see here the best com- 
pendium of your studies, the best alleviation of 
your labors, the truest method of wisdom. It 
is not by reading multitudes of books, but by 
studying the truth of God ; it is not by labo- 
rious commentaries of the doctors that you can 
finish your work, but the exposition of the Spirit 
of God ; it is not by the rules of metaphysics, 
but by the proportions of holiness ; and when 
all books are read, and all arguments examined, 
and all authorities alleged, nothing can be found 
to be true that is unholy. The learning of the 
Fathers was more owing to their piety than 
their skill, more to God than to themselves. 
Those were the men that prevailed against 
error, because they lived according to truth. If 
ye walk in light, and live in the Spirit, your 
doctrines will be true, and that truth will prevail. 

‘THpray God to give you all grace to follow 
this wisdom, to study this learning, to labor for 
the understanding of godliness ; so your time 
and your studies, your persons and your labors, 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


238 


will be holy and useful, sanctified and blessed, 
beneficial to men and pleasing to God, through 
Him who is the wisdom of the Father, who is 
made to all that love Him, wisdom, and right- 
eousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 

Will any one among our living theologists 
controvert the merits of Bishop Taylor ? Is there 
one whom the public judgment will place on an 
equality with him? Will any one stigmatize him 
as an ignorant enthusiast ? His strength of un- 
derstanding and powers of reasoning are strik- 
ingly exhibited in his Ductor Dubitantium , in his 
Liberty of Prophesying, and in his polemical 
writings. I must conclude that he understood 
the Christian religion better than most of the 
sons of men ; because, to abilities of the very 
first rank, he united in himself the finest feel- 
ings of devotion. His authority must have weight 
with all serious and humble inquirers into the 
subject of Christianity, and his authority strongly 
and repeatedly inculcates the opinion which I 
trust to maintain, that the best evidence of the 
truth of our religion is derived from the opera- 
tion of the Holy Spirit on every heart which 
is disposed to receive it. 

And I wish it to be duly attended to, that 


234 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


the discourse from which the above extracts are 
made was not addressed to a popular assembly, 
but to the clergy of a university, and at a 
solemn visitation. The Bishop evidently wished 
that the doctrines which he taught might be 
disseminated among the people by the parochial 
clergy. They were disseminated ; and in conse- 
quence of it Christianity flourished. They must 
be again disseminated by the bishops and all 
parochial clergy, if they sincerely wish to check 
the progress of infidelity. The minds of men 
must be impressed with the sense of an influ- 
ential divinity in the Christian religion, or they 
will reject it for the morality of Socrates, Sen- 
eca, the modern philosophers, and all those plaus- 
ible reasoners to whom this world and the 
“ things which are seen ” are the chief objects 
of their attention. The old divines taught and 
preached with wonderful efficacy, because they 
spoke as men having authority from the Holy 
Ghost, and not as the disputers of this world, 
proud of a little science, acquired from heathen 
writers in the cloisters of an academy. There 
was a celestial glory diffused round the pulpits 
of the old divines ; and the hearers, struck with 



to the preacher as to an 


THE HOL y SPIRIT. 


235 


undoubted oracle. Full of grace were his lips ; 
and moral truth was beautifully illuminated by 
divine. She easily won and firmly fixed the 
affections of men, clothed, as she was, with light 
as a garment. 

Passages from the discourses of the celebrated Mr. 
John Smith, Fellow of Queen's College, Cam- 
bridge, corroborative of the opinion that the best 
Evidence of the Christian Religion arises from 
the energy of the Holy Spirit .* 

“ Divine truth is not to be discerned so much 
in a man’s brain as in his heart. There is a 
divine and spiritual sense which alone is able 
to converse internally with the life and soul of 
divine truth, as mixing and uniting itself with 
it; while vulgar minds behold only the body 
and outside of it. Though in itself it be most 
intelligible, and such as the human mind may 
most easily apprehend, yet there is an incrusta- 
tion, as the Hebrews call it, upon all corrupt 
minds, which hinders the lively taste and relish 
of it. 

“ The best acquaintance with religion is a 


* See his Select Discourses. 


236 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


knowledge taught of God ; it is a light which 
descends from heaven, which alone is able to 
guide and conduct the souls of men to that 
heaven whence it comes. The Christian religion 
is an influx from God upon the minds of good 
men ; and the great design of the gospel is to 
unite human nature to Divinity. 

4 4 The gospel is a mighty efflux and emana- 
tion of life and spirit, freely issuing forth from 
an omnipotent source of grace and love ; that 
god -like, vital influence, by which the Divinity 
derives itself into the souls of men, enlivening 
and transforming them into its own likeness, 
and strongly imprinting upon them a copy of its 
own beauty and goodness : like the spiritual 
virtue of the heavens, which spreads itself freely 
upon the lower world, and subtly insinuating 
itself into this benumbed, feeble, earthly matter, 
begets life and motion in it ; briefly, it is that 
whereby God comes to dwell in .us, and we in 
Him. 

44 The apostle calls the law of ministration of 
the letter and of death, it being in itself but 
a dead letter, as all that which is without a 
man’s soul must be ; but on the other side, he 
calls the gospel, because of the intrinsical and 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


237 


vital administration of it in living impressions 
upon the souls of men, the ‘ministration of the 
Spirit,’ and the 4 ministration of righteousness ; ’ 
by which he can not mean the history of the 
gospel, or those credenda propounded to us to 
believe ; for this would make the gospel itself 
as much an external thing as the law was ; 
and so we see that the preaching Christ cruci- 
fied was to the Jews a 4 stumbling-block, and 
to the Greeks foolishness.’ But indeed he means 
a vital efflux from God upon the souls of men, 
whereby they are made partakers of life and 
strength from Him. 

44 Though the history and outward communi- 
cation of the gospel to us in scriptis is to be 
alway acknowledged as a special mercy and ad- 
vantage, and certainly no less privilege to the 
Christians than it was to the Jews, to be the 
depositaries of the oracles of God, yet it is plain 
that the apostle, where he compares the law 
and the gospel, means something which is more 
than a piece of book-learning, or an historical 
narration of the free-love of God, in the several 
contrivances of it for the redemption of man- 
kind. 

4k The evangelical or new law is an efflux of 


238 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


life and power from God Himself, the original 
of life and power, and produceth life wherever 
it comes ; and to this double dispensation of 
law and gospel does St. Paul clearly refer: ‘You 
are the epistle of Christ ministered by us, writ- 
ten not with ink, but with the Spirit of the 
living God ; not in tables of stone.’ * Which 
last words are a plain gloss upon that mundane 
kind of administering the law, in a mere exter- 
nal way, to which he' opposeth the gospel. 

“ The gospel is not so much a system and 
body of saving divinity, as the spirit and vital 
influence of it spreading itself over all the powers 
of men’s souls, and quickening them into a di- 
vine life ; it is not so properly a doctrine that is 
wrapt up in ink and paper, as it is vitalis sci- 
ential a living impression made upon the soul 
and spirit. The gospel does not so much con- 
sist in verbis as in virtute ; — in the written 
word, as in an internal energy.” 


* 2 Cor. iii, 3. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


239 


H. 


(Chap. VI, p, 135.) 

TESTIMONY AND PRAYER A NECESSARY ANTECED- 
ENT TO MORAL PROGRESS IN THE WORLD. 

There is a connection between providence and 
prayer which none but they who are spiritually- 
minded discern. The Christian, who sees the 
hand of God in human history, can deduce a 
law of Divine administration, which may be 
stated as follows : — The moral progress of the 
world is accomplished by the truth, uttered in 
the name of God, as a testimony against evil, 
and accompanied (as the testimony of true 
Christians always will be) by prayer. 

The reasons of this law and the effect of its 
operation may be clearly discerned : — If there 
be moral progress it must be by the removal of 
moral evils ; but moral evils can be removed 
only by the reformation of the evil-doers, or by 
their destruction, or by the overthrow of the 


240 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


power by which they oppress or corrupt men. 
Hence, if states or churches do not repent when 
light is shed upon their evil principles or prac- 
tices, their power must be broken, and the evil 
removed, by penalty upon the transgressors ; be- 
cause, as before said, the removal of the evil 
is necessary in order to the moral progress of 
the world; and there is no possible way of 
removing a moral evil but by the repentance of 
the subject, or by penalty upon him as a trans- 
gressor. So Jesus announces the principle in 
Matt, xxi, 33-43. 

God sometimes permits an evil to exist for 
ages, as in the case of the papal superstition ; 
while other combinations are going on fitting 
the world for the income of truth. The guilt 
of those who sin in darkness is, in one sense, 
overlooked ; but when providence sends light it 
increases the guilt of those who resist it, hence 
their resistance fits them for more immediate 
penalty. “If I had not come and spoken unto 
them,” said Christ, “ they had not had sin, but 
now have they no cloak for their sins.” “ All 
things that are reproved are made manifest by 
the light ; for whatsoever doth make manifest 
is light.” That is, the moral evils in the minds 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


241 


or practices of men are shown to be such by 
the light of truth, and whatever reveals the moral 
evils of the world, and condemns them, is moral 
truth. Now, when the truth comes, men to 
whose practice it relates grow worse or better 
rapidly. They are called by providence to meet 
the moral issue presented in their times. Those 
who resist and cling to their evil, God makes 
blind by a law of their moral nature. They 
become morally insane in their attachment to 
their sin, and their evil passions rise against 
those who testif}^ against it; and this state of 
mind is the unfailing antecedent of approaching 
doom. “ Whom the gods would destroy they 
first make mad,” is a maxim the pagan nations 
learned by experience. It is rendered in Chris- 
tian theology by the apostle in 2 Thes. ii, 10-12, 
— “ Because they received not the love of the 
truth, that they might be saved. For this rea- 
son God shall send them strong delusion that 
they might believe a lie : that they all might 
be damned who believed not’ the truth, but had 
pleasure in unrighteousness,” — i. e., if men have 
pleasure in their sin instead of the truth which 

shows it to be sin, they will be blinded by 

16 


242 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


their evil propensity, and fall under the Divine 
judgment. 

The application of this principle in the moral 
progress of the world is plain. When an evil 
is to be removed, God sends light by His faith- 
ful witnesses ; this places the evil doers in pro- 
bation in regard to their bad principles and 
practices. They must either receive or reject 
the light. If they receive it, they repent and 
abandon their evil. If they reject it, they grow 
blind in regard to the guilt of their evil practices, 
and the evil is removed by overthrowing the 
power or destroying the influence of the evil- 
doers. Thus, by one means or the other, or by 
both, God accomplishes the moral progress of the 
world. Whenever the witnesses have been moved 
by the Spirit to proclaim the truth with prayer 
in any country, and transgressors have rejected 
the truth, then will the end come by providen- 
tial interpositicn. 

Hence, after John and Jesus had given light, 
and the Jews as a nation had rejected it, they 
grew fanatical in their blindness, and their city 
and nation were destroyed. So old Rome — the 
gospel was preached in all her regions, — she re- 
jected, persecuted the truth, and fell. So modern 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


243 


Rome — during the dark ages she grew strong, 
and prospered in her superstition, because of the 
darkness, — when light came by the Reformation 
she rejected the light, and persecuted those who 
testified against her superstitions. Hence, since 
then one blow after another has fallen upon 
her, and she is now being “ consumed and de- 
stroyed unto the end.” 

So in the slave states of America, — the reform 
which began in Great Britain was preached in 
America ; the slave states, for the most part, 
rejected the truth, and retrograded into such 
moral blindness that they would now crucify 
the fathers of the Republic, whose tombs they 
built, if they were living, and dared to utter 
the sentiments in regard to slavery which they 
held in their life-time. The effect is moral 
blindness and insanity, and the end is as sure 
as the progress of time.* 

The process, then, of moral progress in the 

* Since this Appendix was written, the Rebellion in America 
has taken place. In our age penalty follows closely upon the 
rejection of truth. Slavery has fallen, as all minds in sympathy 
with God knew it must fall, and as the deduction in the above 
paragraph prophesied it would fall, after evil-doers had rejected 
the truth and were permitted to believe lies, in order that they 
might induce their own destruction. 


244 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


world is, — first discussion, then agitation, then 
blindness increasing to moral insanity, on those 
who reject the light, then penalty upon the trans- 
gressors. The process may sometimes be slow, 
and sometimes rapid, but the end is sure. After 
truth comes fairly and fully into conflict with 
error, there is no peace to a wicked people. 

We live in an age when truth is in conflict 
with error in every region of the world. In 
India, China, Turkey, the truth has been pub- 
lished; they have had time to hear and obey. 
Now these peoples are distracted by conflict, and 
their old forms are approaching dissolution. In 
such an age those states and churches which 
have accepted and maintained truth politically, 
socially, and religiously, will be in a great 
measure free from the agitations and evils which 
must come to those who maintain errors in 
government or religion. Wherever wrong or sin 
exists, the conflict of truth with the evil will 
produce agitation ; while those where the truth 
exists in the greatest purity will be most 
peaceful and prosperous. Moral forces are the 
causes which are destroying evil ; hence, when 
a church or nation is right, reason and con- 


THE HOL V SPIRIT. 


245 


science will not prompt agitation, but suppress 
it. When the natural and moral rights of man 
are recognized, the moral power of the human 
mind and the moral power of God, are engaged 
to defend, not to destroy, such a community. 

Thus the true Church secures peace in every 
nation where her principles are accepted. The 
world does not know it, but it is true as inspi- 
ration, that the praying Church of Christ, which 
testifies against the evils existing in Church and 
State, is the saving health of a nation. No 
question can ever be finally settled until it is 
settled right, and hence peace can be gained 
permanently only by righteousness. The true 
Church does not war, but she proclaims the 
truth, resistance to which causes God to send 
war. The profane world — men without faith in 
God — look at the machinations of statesmen as 
the means of national prosperity and progress. 
There are some statesmen whose consciences are 
true, and whose efforts are sincerely devoted to 
the removal of evils in Church and State. But 
often public men get credit for doing what the 
advancing moral sentiment of the world renders 
it expedient for them to do. There is a power 


246 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


beyond and above public men that moves them, 
and surrounds and controls them, forcing them 
often to pursue a course which is better than 
their conscience, and which in other circum- 
stances they would resist.* 

Men and women whose consciences are adjusted 
and empowered by faith in gospel righteousness, 
and who testify against whatever injures man, are 
the conservators of peace and progress in a na- 
tion. Hence England, the non-slaveholding states 
of America, Switzerland, and other Protestant 
lands, will be peaceful and prosperous ; or if 
they have conflict, the war will be without the 
gates. In the Reformation the judgment of prov- 
idence turned against evil. The twelve hundred 
and sixty years of evil ascendency were fulfilled. 
Now, every struggle between light and darkness 
in every land will terminate sooner or later in 
favor of progress. We have reached the period 
in the world’s moral history when the vials of 
divine wrath are being poured out upon evil 
churches and nations. The “ harvest of the 

* Witness the union of the old Whig party in the north, 
with the unmovable Anti-slavery men after the defeat of Gen- 
eral Scott. Many of the old Whigs hated the Abolitionists, 
but their love of power was stronger than their hatred of wrong. 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


247 


wicked ” is being gathered. But the “ wine-press 
of the wrath of God” will be trodden without 
the camp of the saints. Blessed is that people 
who hear, understand, and turn from the evil 
that hinders the progress of light and love in 
the earth. 


248 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


I. 


(Chap. VII, p. 137.) 

IS PRAYER A FORCE IN THE MORAL WORLD ? 

Persevering, repeated , concentrated thought in 
prayer is frequently enjoined in the New Testa- 
ment by the words of Jesus. Prayer not only 
in behalf of the suppliant, as in the case of the 
importunate widow, Luke xviii, 1-8, but like- 
wise in behalf of others, as in Luke xi, 5. Now 
God works in accordance with law in the spirit- 
ual world as in the natural. These injunctions 
therefore have their foundation in laws of mind, 
not yet perhaps well understood, but the exist- 
ence of which should not be doubted. We can 
see, in part, reasons why answer to prayer in 
behalf of others is often delayed, and we can 
believe that such may often exist in the case 
of the suppliant himself. 

Delay may be necessary in the order of nature. 
In order to responsibility there must be know- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


249 


ledge of duty ; but religious knowledge is gained 
progressively, and this requires time. The will 
is influenced by motives. The evil of sin must 
be seen, the character of God considered, the 
beauty of holiness appreciated, but these require 
time ; and furthermore presentation of motives 
usually depends on a second person, and on 
privileges and places — all of which require time. 

Delay may be necessary in the order of provi- 
dence. An individual may be so located in 
society that the truth and motive of the gospel 
can not reach him ; or if they do, the hinder- 
ing causes may be too great. But God converts 
and sanctifies by truth ; hence, in order to an 
answer to prayer, Providence often removes indi- 
viduals to some new locality, or arranges for 
them new surroundings, by which the effect of 
truth will be facilitated. But this requires time 
— often long years of time and effort. 

But especially delay is necessay in the order of 
love. God always labors to reform before He 
executes penalty, “ not willing that any should 
perish.” The long suffering of God waits and 
works for the individual by reason, by motive, 
by providence, by Spirit : hence answers to 
prayer for others, even in cases where their sel- 


250 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


fishness is not desperate, may be long delayed. 
Where there is truth in the mind, and sur- 
roundings favorable, the work of the Spirit may 
be immediate , in other cases the order of time, 
providence, and love may require delay. 

We know that there is always efficiency in the 
prayer of faith offered by an obedient Christian, 
but we do not know enough to affirm the modus 
operandi of that efficiency. It is thought by 
many who have investigated the subject without 
prejudice, that there is sufficient evidence to prove 
the existence of a law of mind, the formula of 
which is, — that strong mental desire , if it carries 
with it a strong purpose of will in regard to another, 
does often affect the mind of the object upon whom 
the urgent mental effort is concentrated. 

The writer has not sufficient knowledge either 
to affirm or deny on the question of the exist- 
ence of such a law. But if there be a law 
that can be expressed by this or by any similar 
formula, then it is easy to see that the concen- 
trated struggle of desire and will in prayer , which 
the Scriptures require, without giving a reason, 
has an import that comes in some way under 
the universal category of cause and effect. And 
when such moral influence is accumulated by 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


251 


united prayer, and by prayer the impulse and 
direction of which is given by the Holy Spirit, 
while some may doubt whether there be such a 
law, others will see that the Divine impulse 
thus added to the human desire would make a 
law of itself. 

Subsequently to writing the matter and the 
notes of the preceding sections, the author re- 
ceived and read with great interest the volume 
entitled “ Muller’s Life of Trust.” The churches 
need such a testimony in our own times. The 
experiences of such saints as Knox, Fox, Woolman 
and Franke are almost forgotten. It is interest- 
ing to find a living illustration confirming the 
power of prayer by the attainment of beneficent 
objects before the face of this unbelieving age ; 
and although the form of Mr. Muller’s faith 
can not be expected by all persons in all cir- 
cumstances, yet with Mr. Muller’s impulses, and 
in the providential circumstances in which he 
has acted, his “ faith in the living G-od ” is that 
of the true Christian, and the results are an 
illustration of the omnipresence and faithfulness 
of Christ, which will refresh believing minds. 


252 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


K. 


(Chap. VII, p. 143.) 


OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT MORALITY. 

To believe and obey God as He makes Him- 
self known to us by revelation, is the essence 
of all religion. And in all dispensations, from 
the patriarchal, with little more than the light 
of nature, down to the perfect in Christ Jesus, 
faith is the same principle working by love to 
the character and conformity to the will of God 
— so far as God reveals Himself. Abraham, who 
in the darkness of his age needed to be taught 
that human sacrifices were not required, exercised 
faith as truly as Paul. And by his faith he 
was willing to trust and sacrifice all of earth 
to the will of God. Hence examples of faith 
in the Old Testament are for all ages, while 
examples of morality are defective if viewed in 
the light of the New Testament. Many well- 
meaning men have hindered progress and per- 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 


258 


verted conscience by endeavoring to make the 
Old Testament morality coincide with the New 
Testament precept, and vice verm. This is con- 
trary to the repeated and express teaching of 
the inspired writers. Old Testament saints would, 
in many leading instances, be New Testament 
sinners. Men may apologize for slavery, concu- 
binage, prevarication, and various other immoral- 
ities, by Old Testament example. It seems 
almost as difficult to detach the Church in the 
modern age from the limited, introductory sys- 
tem of Moses, as it was in the days of Paul. 
It was “ well for the early Christians to take 
heed to the light shining in a dark place, until 
the day dawned and the day-star arose in their 
hearts but after the New Testament dispen- 
sation had been established, then the first “ had 
no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth.” 
(See Epis. to Heb. passim.') 

Still, persons who “ have their senses exercised 
by reason of use,” will be able to discriminate 
the kernel from the husk in all dispensations. 
There is a province where the scholarly benefi- 
ciaries of religious establishments and the preach- 
ing machines produced by many seminaries in 
modern times, may exercise themselves, and have 


254 


THE DOCTRINE OF 


in some cases as much truth on their side in 
regard to the letter of revelation as the dog- 
matic defenders of the faith. But so long as 
the spirit and precepts of the gospel are self- 
evidently perfect and ultimate ; so long as faith 
in Christ crucified produces humility and labor 
for human good ; so long as the Christian faith 
works by love and purifies the heart from sin ; 
so long as the promise of the Spirit may be 
consciously known in experience ; so long as 
these and other essential things are in the gospel, 
and are apparent to all who have eyes to see, 
the good man, while he will appreciate well- 
designed efforts for science or for sect, has a 
duty devolved upon him for Christ and his 
fellow-men which is above these, and which 
includes all sciences and all sects. 

There is a province in which those who are 
in the line of legal ordination, and who labor 
in the letter and in truth, may be more useful 
than those who contend for forms rather than 
for faith. If they would devote attention to 
portions of Scripture that are poetical illustra- 
tions, which have been construed as historical 
statements — such, for instance, as quotations from 
the book of Jasher — or to those passages which 


THE HOL Y SPIRIT 


255 


have been a chief source of skeptical objections, 
but which do not belong to Holy Scripture, or 
are of doubtful authority, such as the destruc- 
tion of Saul’s posterity by David ; and the clos- 
ing verses of the gospel by Mark ; the fourth 
verse of the fifth chapter of John, and other 
similar passages ; — or if they would pay some 
attention to those who allegorize and spiritualize 
Solomon’s Song, or the common histories of 
Jewish institutions or Jewish individuals which 
have been compiled in the Old Testament, they 
would accomplish a work favorable to the pro- 
gress of truth, and acceptable to many who love 
our Lord Jesus Christ better than they do them- 
selves. 




































IIGV 25 VdO'X 


23 1901 

1 COPY DEL. TO CAT. DIV. 
NOV. 25 1901 

NOV. 30 1901 







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